Lakers have Sadly confirmed the departure of…

As has often been the case this season, an untimely injury disrupted the Los Angeles Lakers’ best-laid plans.

Their season was teetering as January turned into February. They had just suffered back-to-back losses to the Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks in the middle of a six-game Grammy Awards-induced road trip, prompting LeBron James to publish his now-infamous hourglass emoji tweet.

Coach Darvin Ham and the rest of the Lakers’ organization knew it was time for another starting lineup change. He had already tinkered with it multiple times, sending guards D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves to the bench at different points in search of more defensive balance. Now, both were starting again, but things still weren’t working.