Injuries Could Hold Back Lakers Playoff Run

The Los Angeles Lakers got the news on Monday that two of their very valuable players, Lamar Odom and Luke Walton, will be out of the lineup for a considerable amount of time. An estimated time of return for either player is not yet known.

Odom was injured in the Lakers game against the Sacramento Kings on March 2^nd. Odom went down after a foul with 3:00 remaining in the contest. The Lakers ended up losing the game. He tore the labrum in his left shoulder. As of right now, Odom is out indefinitely but will have his injury checked out again in a couple of weeks. This is the second time this season that Odom has suffered a serious injury. He missed about a month with a sprained ankle during January.

In the 2004-2005 season Odom missed two months with a very similar shoulder injury. The fact that he missed this much time with almost the same injury is very concerning for the Lakers who look to Odom to provide a lot of scoring and rebounding.

The future outlook on the return of Luke Walton is not looking very bright either. Walton has missed a few weeks with a hurt ankle and will not travel with the team on their upcoming three game road trip. There is no prediction right now as to when Walton will return to playing for the Lakers.

The Lakers will sorely miss these two players as they both put up good numbers and provide quite a spark for the offense. Losing players of this caliber is not good when the playoffs are roughly 20 games away.

Odom has been having a great season, averaging nearly a double-double. He is putting up numbers of 16.4 points per game to go along with 9.4 rebounds and 4.7 assists. He is the second biggest scoring option behind Kobe Bryant and has proven that he can lead the Lakers to victory with the absence of Bryant.

Walton is not putting up numbers like those of Odom, but is still a very important part of the Lakers lineup. Walton is averaging 11.7 points per game with 4.9 rebounds and 4.2. Walton is a hard working player whose numbers don't quite reflect his importance. He has increased his numbers greatly this season in every category.

As of Tuesday, the Lakers have the 6^th spot in the Western Conference and are poised to make a playoff run. If Odom and Walton can return to get into a good flow before the playoffs, the Lakers could be a very dangerous team in the post season.

Cited:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2786964
http://www.lakers.com