The Los Angeles Lakers are expected to have backup center Christian Wood back in the lineup in their ongoing NBA first-round series against the defending champion Denver Nuggets.

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Wood plans to return from a knee injury in Game 3.

Wood, who has been out since February 14, has a couple of more boxes to check before he would be cleared to return, Lakers coach Darvin Ham told reporters shortly after Charania broke the news.

“All I’ll say is he’s still going through his recovery process from injury, his rehab process,” Ham said of Wood on a conference call with reporters. “Obviously, he has size, he has length, he has rebounding capabilities, he can stretch the floor. But first and foremost, he has a couple more boxes to check before we even consider that.”

Wood averaged 6.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists while shooting 46.6% from the field and 30.7% from the 3-point range in 50 regular season games.

Wood is a lot closer to return than Jarred Vanderbilt, who suffered a midfoot sprain, in Boston on February 1. Vanderbilt was spotted wearing a boot ahead of the Lakers’ Game 1 loss.

But Ham said it was only for precautionary measure and that Vanderbilt’s recovery regimen was “going according to plan” while declining to reveal a specific timeline of his return, per ESPN.

Christian Wood To Provide Additional Frontline Depth

Wood’s potential return will be a key boost to the Lakers’ undermanned frontline. They are only relying on Anthony Davis and Jaxson Hayes to slow down Denver’s two-time MVP Nikola Jokic.

Davis and Jokic canceled out each other in scoring with 32 points apiece. But the Lakers lost 114-103 in Game 1 after their backcourt and reserves got outplayed.

The ghost of last year’s Western Conference Finals haunted D’Angelo Russell as he had a rough shooting night anew. Russell shot 6 of 20 from the floor and missed eight of nine 3-point attempts.

Austin Reaves had a quiet 13 points as the Nuggets outscored the Lakers by 12 points when he was on the floor.

In contrast, the Nuggets backcourt of Jamal Murray and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope combined for 34 points. Murray added 11 assists while Caldwell-Pope scored all of his 12 points in the pivotal third quarter where the Nuggets wrested control of the game.

The Lakers’ second unit was non-existent except for Taurean Prince. The veteran Prince was the only Lakers reserve who attempted and scored. He had all of the Lakers’ 11 bench points.

The Nuggets drew 17 points from their reserves with second-year wing Peyton Watson scoring eight points on 3 of 6 shooting.

D’Angelo Russell Shrugs Off Poor Shooting

Russell remained upbeat despite his poor shooting in Game 1.

“I mean, I can’t be mad,” Russell told reporters after going 6 of 20 from the field. “I don’t recall the last time I got 20 shots. So for me to get 20 good looks — not 20 ‘good,’ probably five or six of them were questionable. I know what I’m capable of. So honestly, I’m excited. I’m excited about that.”

He came into this series averaging 18.0 points on a career-high 41.5% 3-point shooting and 6.3 assists and appeared on track for redemption.

During the Nuggets sweep of the Lakers in last season’s Western Conference Finals, Russell unraveled as he only averaged 6.3 points on 13% 3-point shooting and 3.5 assists.