LOS ANGELES_Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton believes that point guard Lonzo Ball was deeply affected by the arrest of his brother LiAngelo last week during a trip to China with the UCLA basketball team.
"(It's) got to. It's family," Walton said. "They're a close family. If my younger brother was in China being arrested, that would weigh on me."
Whether or not that has affected the rookie's play, Walton wouldn't say. But the coach did say that Ball seemed different in practice Thursday _ and his numbers have definitely been different in games.
"It's tough to answer personal questions on him. He's got to answer that," Walton said of Ball, who wasn't made available to the media Thursday. "But his energy seemed ... not the same playful, joyful Lonzo that he normally is."
In the five games since his brother and two other UCLA freshmen were arrested for shoplifting _ four of which the Lakers lost _ Ball missed more free throws than he made and remained on the bench for the fourth quarter of the last two games.
After Ball's one-for-nine shooting performance in Wednesday's loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, Walton said the rookie retreated to the team's El Segundo training facility to work on his shooting. Ball, whose 30.3 percent shooting is the worst in the NBA for a player with more than 135 field-goal attempts, followed up by arriving early Thursday for more practice.
"Could you walk through his shoes?" Kyle Kuzma said of his 20-year-old teammate. "Everybody think it's easy. It's tough. He's in a tough situation.
"But he's level-headed, he's even-keeled. He comes in and works every day. So I'm not worried. As long as he does that, he'll be fine."
Walton agreed, brushing aside a suggestion he lessen the pressure on Ball by using him as a reserve.
"He's our starting point guard," he said. "There's no talk as of now of moving Lonzo to the bench."
