Lakers list Alex Caruso as day-to-day with bone contusion on pelvis

After undergoing testing on Sunday, Alex Caruso has been listed as day-to-day with a bone contusion on his pelvis, the Los Angeles Lakers announced. Caruso suffered the injury in the first quarter of the team’s preseason finale against the Golden State Warriors on Friday.

Caruso averaged 6.2 points on a lowly 24.4 percent shooting from the field, including 35.7 percent shooting from behind the arc, through six games in the preseason. Despite this, he posted a box plus-minus of +5.2 while averaging 19.7 minutes per game, which was the fifth-highest on the team behind LeBron James (+9.8), Anthony Davis (+9), JaVale McGee (+8.4) and Danny Green (+6.3) — four of the five presumed opening night starters.

The reason Caruso’s value in the box score didn’t plummet was because of his stout defense and playmaking.

Caruso averaged 4.2 assists per game, which was the second-highest on the team behind James. While he did turn the ball over three times per game, he still had a higher assist to turnover ratio than Rajon Rondo.

Caruso also posted the second-highest defensive rating (87.2) of any Laker that appeared in at least four games. Danny Green led the team with an 84.5 defensive rating.

Caruso hasn’t lived up to the lofty — and very obviously silly — expectations by Lakers fans, but he still has value to the team in spite of his poor shooting numbers. If he misses the Lakers’ regular season opener against the LA Clippers on Tuesday he’ll be missed. However, head coach Frank Vogel has options at point guard between Avery Bradley, Rajon Rondo, Quinn Cook and Troy Daniels.

The Lakers will likely update Caruso’s status after practice on Monday.

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