The right foot injury that forced Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt out of Thursday’s victory in Boston could reportedly keep him sidelined for an extended period of time.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Dave McMenamin reported Friday that Vanderbilt is “expected to miss several weeks” because of the injury. Vanderbilt is still being evaluated to further determine how long he’ll be sidelined. The Lakers didn’t have an official update on his status as of Friday afternoon.
Vanderbilt left in the second quarter of the Lakers’ 114-105 win over the Celtics because of what the team deemed “right foot soreness” after stealing the ball from Jayson Tatum.
Vanderbilt’s postgame X-ray didn’t show any injury or damage, the Lakers said. Vanderbilt finished with 10 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two assists in 16 minutes, with the Lakers without LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
“It’s a shame he went down, but shout out to Vando, set an unbelievable tone for the game,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “His scrappiness, guarding everybody, starting on Tatum, of course, rebounding, getting us extra possessions, steals, made some great passes, gave us a couple assists.”
Vanderbilt was finding his rhythm on the court recently after missing the season’s first 20 games because of left heel bursitis (inflammation).
He averaged 10.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.8 assists in his last eight games (22.8 minutes) before suffering the foot injury. His quick twitch was starting to show again in the way he defended opposing team’s top scoring options, jumped in passing lanes and crashed the offensive glass.
The defensive-minded Vanderbilt, whom the Lakers acquired from the Utah Jazz in February as part of their roster revamping ahead of last season’s trade deadline, was a key contributor during the run to the Western Conference finals last spring.
Vanderbilt, who is in the final season of a three-year, $13.1 million contract he…
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