Lakers rookie Julius Randle suffers fractured tibia in NBA debut

Lakers rookie power forward Julius Randle suffered a fractured right tibia in the team’s season-opening loss to the Houston Rockets on Tuesday.

With 6:46 left in the game, Randle collapsed on a drive to the basket, holding his right leg.

Randle grimaced in pain and yelled out as members of the Lakers training staff tended to his injury. He was eventually fitted with an air cast and helped off the court via a stretcher.

The Lakers later confirmed Randle’s injury and said he was transported to a nearby hospital. The team said he could have surgery as early as Wednesday, but a possible timetable for Randle’s return to the Lakers was not immediately known.

“When one guy goes down somebody else gets an opportunity, you just got to be ready to take advantage of it,” Coach Byron Scott said in a postgame interview. “He’s going to be a great player in this league. It’s just going make him have to work harder.”

The Lakers drafted the Kentucky forward with the seventh overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft.

“I told him to keep his spirits up,” said Kobe Bryant after the game. “Try not to think about it too much right now. Just try to keep your spirits up.”

In his NBA debut, Randle played 14 minutes, scoring two points the team’s 108-90 loss to the Rockets.

“You can only control what you can control. It’s really tough to process,” said Bryant. “He’s going to come back strong from this”

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