NEW YORK — Power forward Julius Randle will return to the Lakers starting lineup Monday against the Knicks after sitting out three of the past four games with what turned out to be pneumonia.
Randle was held out of the Lakers’ loss at Utah on Jan. 26 with what was considered a viral infection. Two days later, he was diagnosed with pneumonia. He returned to action Thursday in Washington, but was limited to six minutes and did not play the next night in Boston.
With two full days between games, and practice Sunday in midtown Manhattan, Randle seems ready to go.
“He looked really good in practice,” coach Luke Walton said, following the Lakers morning shootaround at Madison Square Garden. “We’ll keep a close eye on his conditioning. If it looks like he’s getting fatigued, we’ll get him out of there.”
Randle is averaging 12.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. On Jan. 4, he recorded his third triple-double, and seemed to emerge as a top option for the Lakers. Soon after he fell into a bad slump. In his next 11 games Randle didn’t so much as double-double. He has scored more than 10 points only twice in his past nine games.
“He’s a young guy,” Walton said. “He’s going to play good and have some struggles and eventually he figures it out.”
The Lakers (17-36) face the Knicks (22-30) at 4 p.m. L.A. has lost two consecutive games to start a five-game road trip and are 2-8 in their past 10 games. The Knicks are coming off a 111-104 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday.
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