The Los Angeles Lakers are riding high after their impressive victory on Friday night against the Utah Jazz, but even before they take the floor on Sunday evening against the Charlotte Hornets, it’s starting to sound like Kyle Kuzma is a little bit closer to returning to uniform.
Kuzma was previously deemed not ready to play with full-contact but he has been playing 4-on-4 over the last few days and has seen his workload go up in the last couple of days as well. He played for 25 minutes on Sunday after playing for 10 minutes previously, although he hasn’t yet been cleared to play all out 5-on-5, according to Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times.
That Kuzma is playing against people in a real setting is a good sign, considering he’d previously been seen only doing individual workouts or 5-on-0 sessions to get a hang of the Lakers offense. The Lakers likely won’t get Kuzma back for another week or so but the fact he’s playing against real people shows that he’s inching closer to playing his first games alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
