EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - If the Los Angeles Lakers are going to take the first step toward becoming the first team in the history of the NBA to win a series after falling down 0-3, and they will have to do so with Darius Morris, Andrew Goudelock and Earl Clark in the squad their core.
Steve Nash (hamstring), Judy Mix (ankle) and Steve Blake (hamstring) will miss a second consecutive matches in the series to the Lakers in the first round against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday. Meta World Peace (knee) also have been ruled out.
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I appreciate everyone's support for my efforts to try to finish the season on top of and contribute to the team. I think I have to finish the season on top in a different way. I will not be able to play on Sunday, but it's OK. We're going to come out with a victory and then will move on from there. I hope to come back when we get to San Antonio.
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- Meta World Peace via Twitter
"He wanted to give it a go, but he was just pulling his leg, and we did not feel like he could go," said coach Mike D'Antoni of World Peace, who was scoreless in the Los Angeles Lakers 17 minutes in the first half 'loss 120 - 89 in Game 3 on Friday.
"I appreciate everyone's support my efforts to try to finish the season on top of and contribute to the team," World Peace said in a video that God twitter account Saturday. "I think I have to finish the season on top in a different way, I will not be able to play on Sunday, but not too bad. We're going to come out triumphantly and then will move on from there. Hopefully, I can go back when we get to San Antonio."
That would be Game 5 on Tuesday, and if the series goes that far. If it does not, it will begin an interesting offseason.
Dwight Howard is set to become a free agent on July 1, and it has yet to inform the Los Angeles Lakers, whether he intends to re-sign or not.
"I have not thought about it," Howard said after practice Saturday. "We did not talk about it."
D'Antoni, due to a public vote of support from the Los Angeles Lakers manager Mitch Kupchak before the LA final game of the regular season against the Houston Rockets, also avoided a question about what we can achieve the offseason.
"We're worried about Sunday's game is everything we do," D'Antoni said. "We're going to try to play well on Sunday and try to get a win, win to sneak in there."
Spurs have won the first three games of the series by 18 points, and there's no denying the impact that injuries had on the Los Angeles Lakers.
"It was really hard," said Pau Gasol. "It's hard to play at this level of playoff basketball without a table healthy. Non 1-2-3-4 only (players), and this is the key five players in our rotation and our game that are not there with us. It's been one thing after another . has been a bumpy path. "
Gasol is an average of 13.3 points, 12.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists in the series, but said he is not healthy, either.
"The foot is still bothering me," said Gasol, who missed a large part of the season with a torn plantar fascia in his right foot. "I knew that was going to happen.'m Taking care of it every day, but it's still restricted.
"My knees and being an issue, too. And my suffering tendons patellar. It's something that once the season is over, I'll have to take care of and do something about because it was the limit, but at the same time, I've still been very good performance, and I want to continue to fight, and continue to leave everything out there on the ground, and do what I have to do. "
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Gasol said his left knee hurts more than the right, but both will require attention in this summer.
"We will see what kind of treatments, injections (available)," Gasol said. "It's more than tendinitis, it's tendonitis. There is a degeneration of the tissue, and this is something I've dealt with every year, so I'll have to do something to tissue regeneration and so I do not have to play with this pain."
Gasol said that he could follow the example of Kobe Bryant and fly to Germany for treatment Regenokine.
"Wherever I have to go, I'll go," said Gasol. "It's a possibility."
He said four times All-Star, who will turn out on July 33, said he was looking forward to a non-invasive procedures instead of surgery.
"Find ways to tendon tissue regeneration so I can get rid of all the dead tissue and inflammation that is there at the moment. I also have calcification on my listing of my patella (tendon)," Gasol said. "So, it was hard, but it was not easy this year, so do not expect any less than that."
You do not have Gasol as clear a picture of what would happen to him and put his teammates with the Lakers this summer. Gasol, World Peace, Bryant and Blake are all eligible to be released from the team through the amnesty rule the NBA. Gasol knows better than most of the deals that are always a possibility, after an agreement to send him to Houston in a tripartite deal would have landed Chris Paul to the Lakers before the 2011-12 season fell through.
"I am happy and proud of how the players fought through what we've been through and gone through," said Gasol. "That's what I'd like to see, and this is what will remain in my mind and my heart. What will happen after that is completely up to the team and management, and this is absolutely not in our hands."
What is in the hands of the Lakers depleted 'is their game 4 performance.
"We want to win and we're not going to just leave because all the odds are against us," said Howard. "We are going to fight and this is the only way you know how to play."
He said D'Antoni: "You can not do something that everyone will be talking about if everyone expects you to do so no one expects us to do it, so, we're going to show we're going to try to do it and why not? We have good guys. Has battled since February getting us to this position, and we are now in a big hole again, in an attempt to recover slowly, and this is our thinking.'ll see if we can do that. "
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