Rui Hachimura out for Lakers vs. Spurs with right ankle sprain

The Lakers will be shorthanded in their first game of the NBA Cup on Friday as Rui Hachimura is out with a sprained ankle.

The Lakers will open their NBA Cup title defense shorthanded on Thursday evening. After being a new addition to the injury report ahead of the showdown with the Spurs, Rui Hachimura was downgraded to out ahead of the team’s showdown in San Antonio.

Hachimura has missed just one game this season, ironically the team’s last road game against Memphis. That absence, though, was an illness and not any sort of injury.

Without him in the starting rotation, head coach JJ Redick said pregame that both Dalton Knecht and Max Christie would get more minutes.

The former is coming off his best game of his young rookie season against the Grizzlies. Knecht’s strong second half helped kickstart the Lakers’ comeback to remain unbeaten at home.

For Christie, this is a big moment for the third-year wing. After playing his way out of the rotation to start the season, being replaced by Cam Reddish, Christie has the chance to play his way back into the rotation on Thursday.

There are certainly minutes that could become available even after Rui returns to full health. Gabe Vincent’s continued struggles have led to louder and louder calls for him to be removed out of the rotation. A strong showing from Christie could make that a likelier possibility.

Circling back to Rui, the question will now be whether he’s available for the second night of a back-to-back on Saturday in New Orleans. Dave McMenamin of ESPN spoke to him pregame, but there was no clarity on his status moving forward.

It’s a tough time for Rui to be injured, though there is realistically never a good time for it, either.

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