No flex zone: Nick Young out again Sunday for Lakers

Fans hoping the Los Angeles Lakers lose more than they win the rest of the season may be disappointed by the continued absence of Swaggy P.

Nick Young will miss his third consecutive game Sunday due to soreness and swelling in his left knee. The Lakers won the last two games with Young out - and the last in which he played - giving them an ill-timed three-game winning streak.

That's not to say the Lakers want to lose. The players and staff surely hope to win, it's just that in a lost season, there are incentives for teams to finish lower in the standings. The Lakers keep their first-round pick if it falls in the top five, something that's more likely the lower they fall.

While Young is a lovable character and a capable scorer, he's shot horribly this season. In the first year of a sizable four-year contract, the 29-year-old is averaging 13.4 points while shooting 36.6 percent from the floor, adding only 2.3 rebounds and one assist, an empty-stat Young staple.

He's hitting 36.9 percent from long range, enough to keep his offensive efficiency metrics within striking distance of league average and the team's offense has been 1.7 points per-100 possessions better with him on the floor. So it's not all bad.

Still, funneling possessions to a shoot-first, shoot-second player shooting 36.6 percent from the floor seems a pretty effective way to secure pingpong balls for the lottery.

A recent MRI on Young's knee came back negative, so it seems it's just a matter of waiting for the swelling to go down.