Lakers’ Cam Reddish sits out against Mavericks, day to day with adductor injury – Press Enterprise

LOS ANGELES — Lakers wing Cam Reddish wasn’t available for Wednesday night’s home game against the Dallas Mavericks and his status is “day-to-day” because of left adductor (inner thigh) soreness.

Reddish suffered the injury early in Tuesday’s In-Season Tournament victory over the Utah Jazz, playing five minutes to start the game before being ruled out before the second quarter started.

“His MRI came back pretty much clean,” Coach Darvin Ham said before the game. “Just an old issue he was dealing with but not as severe as we were in fear of. It’ll be a day-to-day thing we’ll have to manage.”

Reddish joined forward Jarred Vanderbilt (left heel bursitis – inflammation) and guard Gabe Vincent (left knee effusion – swollen joint) as rotation players sidelined with injuries.

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Vanderbilt hasn’t played since the preseason opener against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 7. He was cleared for his “return to play progression” last week. Ham wouldn’t say whether he could return during their post-Thanksgiving four-game road trip.

“We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, just gauging it day by day,” Ham said. “He’s going through workouts. [Tuesday] was a day off for him. Went through another one [Wednesday] morning. It’s just a day-by-day thing seeing how he responds to different levels as we ramp up his workouts.”

Second-year guard Max Christie started against the Mavericks in place of Reddish alongside D’Angelo Russell, Taurean Prince, LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

“Just go out and play hard,” Ham said of his focus for Christie. “He’s a young player trying to establish himself in this league. We have all the confidence in the world in him. Just go out and play here, the little things.

“As a young player, you want to do the little things to get your rhythm going in the games. It’s really not about touches or scoring opportunities. It’s running, making sure you’re getting back up and down the court at a high level, guarding your guy and not making silly mistakes, you’re not skipping details – just being solid. And usually, good things happen.”

Reddish was stepping up his play as a starter before suffering the injury. He averaged 12.7 points (50% shooting, 46.4% from 3-point range), 3.0 rebounds and 2.8 steals in the six games since he became a full-time starter leading into Tuesday’s game.

WOOD ADJUSTING

With the Lakers facing another of his former teams, a focus going into Wednesday was the difference in Christian Wood’s role with the Lakers vs. what it was for the Mavericks in 2022-23.

Wood averaged 16.6 points and 7.3 rebounds in 25.9 minutes for Dallas, finishing the season with a usage rate of 26.4%.

This season with the Lakers, Wood entered Wednesday with averages of 7.1 points and 6.2 rebounds in 21 minutes as the Lakers have looked for Wood to focus on impacting winning outside of scoring. His usage rate of 15.9% is the lowest it’s been since his second season in the league.

“All due respect to the Mavs, but we’re an entirely different type of program,” Ham said. “What he had to do to help them be successful last year is a lot different than what he has to do here. He’s totally bought into that.

“He’s turned the page and is just going to continue to grow and progress within his role and doing the things we need him to do, such as rebounding, playing good defense, being solid on that side of the ball, screening [and] getting his teammates open, facilitating when he gets the ball [on] second- and third-side actions. If he’s open, be aggressive. The past is the past. He’s a Laker now. We’ve liked the way he’s progressing and growing within his role for us.”