Lakers place key bench player in concussion protocol

The Lakers will be without a key bench player after a nasty fall took place Friday night.

The Los Angeles Lakers took home a 105-100 victory Friday night over the Indiana Pacers in a game that saw LeBron James and company fight back from an early deficit.

The only problem was that the win came at a cost. Fan favorite Alex Caruso slipped and hit his head on the floor early in the game. He needed attention from the training staff and finished with only seven minutes on the night. News dropped over the weekend that he is officially in the NBA‘s concussion protocol.

Lakers without Alex Caruso for an unknown amount of time

This is a bummer for the Lakers, and the hope is that Caruso can return soon. Symptoms from concussions can linger on and not only keep a player out, but serve as a scary medical condition. So far the news is simply that he is in the league’s concussion protocol.

Caruso is a nice piece off the bench for the Lakers and is averaging just under 20 minutes per game. He rarely scores more than 10 points in a game, but he still provides quality minutes when the starters are off the floor.

The 27-year-old joined the Lakers in 2017 on a two-way contract and eventually received regular playing time last season. Now he is an NBA champion and a reliable member of a LeBron-led team after going undrafted out of Texas A&M in 2016.

The Lakers are already without Anthony Davis and now lose a key player off the bench. This comes at a time when they could easily slide down into the fourth spot in the Western Conference standings this week.

Expect the organization to make a few moves anyway before the trade deadline. The Lakers may look much different at the end of the month after trades and buyouts take place.