{"id":313162,"date":"2025-11-28T22:46:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T22:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/313162\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T22:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T22:46:08","slug":"slippery-subject-lakers-will-not-use-nba-cup-court-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/313162\/","title":{"rendered":"Slippery subject: Lakers will not use NBA Cup court tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Lakers<\/a> will not use their special NBA Cup<\/a> court during a group stage game Friday against the Dallas Mavericks after the team flagged concerns that it was too slippery.<\/p>\n

After the Lakers debuted the special yellow court on Tuesday in a win over the Clippers, Lakers superstar Luka Doncic<\/a> said during his postgame news conference that the floor was dangerously slippery. The team reported the problem to the league, and technicians from the court vendor determined the surface was unplayable for the group stage finale, according to a team spokesperson.<\/p>\n

The court could be repaired and available in time for the NBA Cup quarterfinals that begin on Dec. 9, if needed. The Lakers, who are 3-0 in West Group B, have already clinched their spot in the knockout round and will secure home-court advantage in the quarterfinals with a win against the Mavericks.<\/p>\n

The colorful NBA Cup courts were designed to help set the in-season tournament games apart from other regular-season matchups. The Lakers played their first two NBA Cup games on the road \u2014 in Memphis and New Orleans \u2014 but Doncic did not remember having a problem with courts in those games. But it became immediately clear during pregame warmups on Tuesday that the Lakers\u2019 bright yellow NBA Cup court presented issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just felt weird. Just like oily, slippery,\u201d forward Rui Hachimura said Friday morning. \u201cEverybody was on the floor, literally. Every second. \u2026 We\u2019re going to do the normal court [Friday], so it will be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

In former Lakers star Anthony Davis\u2019 highly anticipated return to L.A., the Lakers will also get their own big man back as center Deandre Ayton was upgraded to available for Friday\u2019s game after morning shootaround. <\/p>\n

Ayton missed Tuesday\u2019s game because of a knee contusion. He suffered the injury in the previous game against the Utah Jazz when he took a knee-to-knee hit. He said the impact was so strong that it felt almost like he broke his knee cap, but after an MRI exam revealed no major damage, he was able to get treatment and medication to help alleviate the swelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really something that\u2019s stopping me from playing,\u201d Ayton said. \u201cIt hurts, but it is something I could play through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis has been sidelined since Oct. 29 when he suffered a calf injury. The Mavericks\u2019 forward is expected to play his first game against the Lakers in L.A. after February\u2019s blockbuster trade that sent him to Dallas in exchange for Doncic. Davis missed last season\u2019s game in L.A. because of injury.<\/p>\n

Lakers guard Marcus Smart, who was questionable to play tonight, has been downgraded to doubtful because of back spasms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lakers will not use their special NBA Cup court during a group stage game Friday against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,139566,2695,26008,35713,87991,1112,5718,56968,61706,5407,9662,459,139565,82,2341,35899,21683],"class_list":["post-313162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-court-vendor","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-doncic","tag-floor","tag-friday-morning","tag-game","tag-injury","tag-l-a","tag-laker","tag-lakers","tag-last-year","tag-nba","tag-nba-cup-court-tonight","tag-sports","tag-team","tag-tuesday","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}