Lonzo Ball returns to practice, hopes to play Friday

Lonzo Ball returned to practice on Thursday, participating fully for the first time since spraining his left shoulder on Dec. 23.

And it wasn’t an easy practice to get through.

In an effort to wipe away the pain from Wednesday night’s 37-point loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Lakers had an especially physical practice on Thursday.

“A little sore right now, but … I was happy to be out there and finish that whole thing without coming out,” Ball said.

Ball said he hopes to play Friday when the Charlotte Hornets visit the Lakers, but will be officially listed as questionable. He added, though, that he did not expect to be 100% healthy for that game. Right now, he said, contact still bothers him but he wants to play through it.

The Lakers have lost every game Ball has missed and they are on an eight-game losing streak, which matches their longest of last season.Coach Luke Walton said Ball’s absence has had a lot to do with the Lakers losing streak.

“He is a guy that, like we said all along, he makes his teammates better,” Walton said. “That is why our organization is so high on him. From the center position to the shooting guard position, everyone plays better when he is out there. And one of the surprising strengths that Lonzo has had for us this year is his defense as well. His size, his length, his anticipation, he gets deflections for us. So we have missed him a lot but we still should have been doing a better job even without him on the floor.”

tania.ganguli@latimes.com

Twitter: @taniaganguli