The Los Angeles Lakers will seek their sixth straight victory on Saturday night as they battle the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center. But the Lakers will do so without reserve point guard Steve Blake, who is expected to miss three to four weeks with a rib injury, the team announced Friday night.
Blake has a costochaondral fracture, which is a fracture of the cartilage connecting the rib to the sternum. He originally suffered the injury Tuesday night against the Phoenix Suns, and aggravated it Wednesday night in Salt Lake City against the Utah Jazz. Blake did not play Friday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Blake's wife Kristen has a good sense of humor about her husband's injury, tweeting on Friday, "Woke up this morn to the the boys running down the hall 'let's go see if daddy's rib is still sticking out!!' they're fascinated by it. lol."
Blake is averaging 7.3 points and 2.8 assists this season in 24.3 minutes per game, while shooting 40.2% from the field, including 35.4% from three-point range. Rookie Darius Morris figures to get the bulk of Blake's minutes. Morris played 18 minutes Friday night against Cleveland two days after playing 13 minutes in place of Blake two days earlier in Utah.
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