Christian Wood hasn’t participated in a Los Angeles Lakers game in over two months. On Valentine’s Day, he made his final appearance against the Utah Jazz. The 28-year-old appears to be very close to making his court debut for Los Angeles. Shams Charania of The Athletic reports that Wood thinks he’ll be back on Thursday. They will play the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.
Wood, who is currently in his sixth NBA season, has missed the last 26 games in the regular season. He had participated in 50 of the Lakers’ first 56 games before that. Wood has averaging 6.9 points and 5.1 rebounds so far this season.
His shooting percentages were lower than in prior years, coming in at 30.7% from three-point range and 46.6% from the field. During the last offseason, Wood stayed unsigned for a considerable amount of time. At last, he consented to a two-year contract with the Lakers valued approximately $5.7 million. There is a player option for the upcoming season for just over $3 million.
Wood was a productive player even though those Houston teams weren’t very good. He averaged 21.0 points and 9.6 rebounds in 2020–21, placing him fourth in the poll for Most Improved Player. He averaged 17.9 points and 10.1 rebounds the next season. Wood shot 50.7% from the field and 38.4% from beyond the arc combined in those two seasons. Wood placed ninth in the Sixth Man of the Year vote during his previous campaign with the Dallas Mavericks.
