Cleveland Cavaliers vs Los Angeles Lakers live streaming, Lonzo Ball
Dec 12, 2017; New York, NY, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball (2) passes the ball to Lakers center Brook Lopez (11) over New York Knicks guard Jarrett Jack (55) during the second half at Madison Square Garden. USA TODAY Sports / Adam Hunger

Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball will miss the team's back-to-back road games against the Houston Rockets on Sunday (Monday AEDT) and Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) as he recovers from a left shoulder contusion. Ball was drafted No. 2 overall by the Lakers in June.

Ball has missed the Lakers' last three games -- all three losses at home to Minnesota Timberwolves (Christmas Day), Memphis Grizzlies (Dec. 29) and Los Angeles Clippers (Dec. 29). The Lakers have lost eight of their last 10 games and have fallen to the No. 14 seed in the Western Conference.

After a rough start to his career, Ball has made rapid strides with a tally of averaged 12.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.3 steals per game in the month of December. Ball's shooting percentages have improved significantly since the first two months of his NBA career, as he shot a healthy .377 from the three-point arc through 10 games in December.

Despite his progress, Ball is not in the running for the Rookie of the Year award. Philadelphia 76ers' Ben Simmons, the Lakers' Kyle Kuzma, the Utah Jazz' Donovan Mitchell and the Boston Celtics' Jayson Tatum are currently ahead of Ball in NBA.com's Rookie Ladder.

Meanwhile, the young Lakers team reportedly held an emergency meeting Friday to air out their frustrations. "It was a long meeting, we talked about a lot of stuff. It wasn't like we had a schedule printed out about how we were going to talk about everything. It went different places and everything was open... we were in there for a while," Lakers coach Luke Walton said ahead of Friday's 121-106 loss to the Clippers.

Lonzo Ball, 20, is averaging 10.0 points, 7.1 assists, 6.9 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks per game in his rookie campaign with the Lakers. Prior to the draft, several analysts heralded Ball as the best passer to enter the NBA in recent years. Though Ball hasn't lived up to his billing, the point guard is widely regarded as a future star.