![\"JJ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2253527225_208ddd-e1767597684441.jpg\")
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Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick reacts after his team is called for a foul against the Detroit Pistons at Crypto.com Arena on December 30, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> have apparently suffered a setback in the injury recovery of key starter Rui Hachimura<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last week, head coach JJ Redick<\/a> noted that Hachimura was on track<\/a> to return from his calf soreness during the two-game road trip against the\u00a0New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> and\u00a0San Antonio Spurs<\/a> on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, before Sunday\u2019s victory over the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>, Redick revealed that Hachimura won\u2019t be traveling with the team.<\/p>\n JJ Redick says Rui Hachimura (calf) will not go on the upcoming Pelicans-Spurs road trip and could get in some practice with South Bay while the Lakers are out of town.<\/p>\n Hachimura, sidelined since the Dec. 28 win over the Sacramento Kings<\/a>, was the Lakers\u2019 most efficient and consistent three-point shooter before his injury.\u00a0 The seventh-year forward was shooting a career-high 44.5% from three,<\/a> a huge boost for a Lakers team that ranks 26th in the league in 3P%<\/a> and 25th in made threes.<\/p>\n Rui Hachimura Not a Starter?<\/p>\n In Hachimura\u2019s absence, Jake LaRavia<\/a> has thrived in a starting role<\/a>, averaging 18.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.3 steals in his last three games. That includes a 26-point performance<\/a> in Sunday\u2019s 120-114 when he shot 9-of-16 from the field.<\/p>\n Some believe that Hachimura\u2019s injury may be a blessing in disguise, as it has allowed Redick to try out LaRavia in a starting role.<\/p>\n \u201cRui is the fifth option in that lineup, and he is just not good at being a fifth option\u2013he needs the ball more,\u201d a Western Conference coach told Heavy Sports\u2019 Sean Deveney.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI think Jake LaRavia is a lot more comfortable in that role, just playing with energy, playing that level of defense and not needing plays to be called for him to score.<\/p>\n \u201cRui needs to be more involved and he could get that on the second unit. It is really the defining problem of that team\u2013you have five guys in the starting lineup who all need the ball. Can\u2019t have that. You need at least two guys who can do the dirty work while the other three do their thing. You can\u2019t have five guys who want to score on the floor together.\u201d<\/p>\n Lakers Injury Troubles<\/p>\n LaRavia, who leads the Lakers in deflections and several other hustle stats, has also been a surprisingly adequate defender for Redick.<\/p>\n After his 26-point performance on Sunday, LaRavia thanked the Lakers coaching staff for keeping the faith in him.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just trusting the work that I\u2019ve been putting in recently,\u201d LaRavia said, via TalkBasket.<\/a> \u201cCoaches telling me, players telling me, just keep shooting the ball. They trust me. I trust myself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I\u2019m very much a player where when you tell me the things that you want me to do, I\u2019m just going out there and doing them,\u201d he added. \u201cShots aren\u2019t going to fall every game, but I can control the effort that I bring to the game, crashing every time.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the back-to-back wins over Memphis, the injury-ravaged Lakers have a tough schedule the rest of the way in January, as 10 of their remaining 14 games<\/a> will be on the road, starting with the back-to-backs in New Orleans and San Antonio on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Lakers will end the month on an eight-game trip (including Grammy Road Trip), which includes stops in Denver, Dallas and Cleveland.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick reacts after his team is called for a foul against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-393681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}