The Lakers have struggled this season sitting at 10-14 amongst coaching changes, injuries and plain old ineptitude. This isn’t what Lakers fans or anyone had in mind when they reloaded their roster with an All-Star cast during the offseason. Point guard Steve Nash is out with a leg fracture and Pau Gasol has been sidelined with knee tendinitis. The team thought it better to rest him rather than run him into the ground while they’re missing others vital to their success. Gasol is now making progress and might be ready to return to the lineup. Read more after the jump.
According to Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register:
Good news for the Lakers: Pau Gasol got back on the court today for the first time in two weeks and successfully went through 90 minutes of running, shooting and other individual basketball drills.
He told me yesterday that he had graduated to basically no pain from the tendinitis in his knees during three days on the treadmill. Now he didn’t have any problems advancing to on-court work today.
The next step will be seeing how his knees feel tomorrow after the stress of today. If things go well, Gasol could be back for the Lakers’ home game against Charlotte on Tuesday — with the next game after that not till Saturday at Golden State.
Though he is almost virtually pain free there’s still no guarantees about his production. He hasn’t fit into coach Mike D’Antoni’s offense and judgement day still awaits as the front office wants to see how he plays once Steve Nash returns as well.
