Last time we saw Lakers guard Alex Caruso in an NBA game, it was Sunday and the Lakers were putting a blowout on the Timberwolves. He played 11 minutes and had seven points, part of a relatively slow start to the season for the high-energy perimeter defender.
Since then, Caruso has been out. He had been dealing with a wrist injury, but that injury is not the reason for his absence. According to the Lakers’ injury report, Caruso is out because of, “health and safety protocols,” and will miss Friday’s game at San Antonio, his third absence this week.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel updated that on Friday, saying that Caruso will also miss the team’s game in Memphis on Sunday. He did not have an answer for when we will see Caruso back with the team. “I’m not sure the exact date that he’s going to be able to rejoin us,” Vogel said Friday.
Frank Vogel says that Alex Caruso will also miss the first game of the Lakers upcoming two-game set in Memphis because of the health and safety protocol.
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The Lakers have said little about Caruso’s situation. Missing a game because of “health and safety protocols” refers to the league’s 158-page document meant to help the league manage this season through the nation’s COVID-19 crisis. The guidelines were sent to teams early last month.
It is unlikely that Caruso himself has COVID-19 because the league and players association announced this week that no players tested positive from Christmas Eve through December 30. There are cases, though, in which the virus does not show up until a few days after an individual has been tested. Either way, Caruso is tested daily, as are all NBA players.
Will Alex Caruso Pay a Financial Penalty for Missing Lakers Games?
The protocols include contact tracing, so a player who is forced to sit because of safety protocols could have simply come into contact with someone who later tested positive.
Players are also instructed not to visit bars, clubs or other live entertainment venues. They’re also prevented from going to public gyms and pool areas, but much of that is shut down around Los Angeles now, anyway. Large indoor gatherings of more than 15 people are also prohibited.
We don’t know exactly how and where Caruso ran afoul of the health and safety protocols, but we do know that there is the potential for financial punishment. Players who miss games because of a violation of the protocols are subject to having their pay docked for those games.
The league has made clear, though, that it will not be harsh in financial punishments in the early stages of the implementation of the health and safety protocols. When Rockets star James Harden was seen at a strip club last month, he was fined a relatively mild $50,000.
It’s never a dull moment when the Commissioner joins #TheJump. Adam Silver makes his first public comments on the James Harden fine, why the league didn’t issue a suspension, and the postponement of the Rockets-Thunder game last night:
Lakers Coach Frank Vogel on Protocols: ‘Make Sure We Follow Them’
Lakers coach Frank Vogel spoke of the importance of sticking by the protocols when he announced that Caruso would be out for the game last Monday against Portland. From ESPN.com:
Everything we do at work, so to speak, in our travel party and everything is designed not only to keep us safe from the virus, but to protect us from quarantine situations. If we’re not following the protocols and a staff member is in close contact with someone, then they’re going to be subject to a potential close-contact quarantine. So that’s at work. So that’s why we feel like it’s safe to go through an NBA season the way we’re doing it.
All these protocols are in place to keep everyone safe. So make sure we follow them, and the things that you have to think about is that’s not the only place people are. If any of us has a situation where a family member tests positive or something like that, we could all be subject to that type of close contact quarantine and but — in terms of what we’re doing at work, these protocols are designed to keep us safe.
The hope, of course, is that Caruso is safe and that he can get back to the floor soon.
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UPDATE: Key Laker’s Mysterious COVID-19 Absence Grows Deeper