Dave McMenamin
Multiple Authors
DALLAS — With the crew already reeling from the Luka Doncic left hamstring pressure analysis that may sideline him indefinitely, the Los Angeles Lakers introduced on Saturday that Austin Reaves has been recognized with a Grade 2 left indirect muscle harm and shall be out for the remainder of the regular season.
While the crew gave no timetable for his return, sources instructed ESPN’s Shams Charania that Reaves is predicted to overlook 4 to 6 weeks with the harm.
Reaves underwent an MRI on his indirect/rib space Saturday. He was initially listed as questionable to play towards the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.
Despite the crew being undermanned — guard Marcus Smart can be day-to-day after lacking the final six video games with groin and ankle accidents — coach JJ Redick mentioned earlier on Saturday the Lakers’ resolve is powerful.
“Our mission, it hasn’t changed,” Redick mentioned. “The rest of these guys and my staff, we’re going after the 3-seed and we’re going to try to win a playoff series. And we’ll see what happens with Luka.”
L.A. (50-27) has a one-game lead on the No. 4 Denver Nuggets, a two-game lead on the No. 5 Houston Rockets and a three-game lead on the No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves with 5 video games remaining. The Lakers additionally maintain the tiebreaker towards all three of these groups, having already received the season sequence towards every of the others.
The crew introduced Friday that Doncic has a Grade 2 left hamstring pressure, an harm that usually includes a monthlong restoration. The Lakers haven’t supplied a timetable for Doncic’s return past lacking the remaining of the regular season. The first spherical of the NBA playoffs begins in two weeks.
Reaves tweaked his left aspect within the first half of the Lakers’ 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday. He went again to the locker room for analysis, however he returned to the sport and completed with a team-high 15 factors in 27 minutes.
“I went back to get a rebound, overextended a little bit, and I felt something,” Reaves defined after the sport. “But I feel decent right now, so we’ll see.”
Reaves required two MRI exams on the harm after the primary one scanned the fallacious space of his physique.
“I don’t know where the chain of command lies with Dallas imaging, but they scanned the wrong area,” Redick mentioned. “Not on our end.”
Both Reaves and Smart weren’t full members within the crew’s observe on SMU’s campus Saturday.
With Doncic out and Reaves’ standing unknown, Redick mentioned L.A. would divide the offensive burden between a handful of gamers, rattling off the names of LeBron James, Luke Kennard, Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton.
“I mean, it’s a challenge for us,” James mentioned after observe. “It’s always got to be a next-man-up [mentality]. But there’s no way you can replace that type of impact. So, it’s going to be a collective group. We all have to figure out a way to do a little bit more. … But now you got to be even more tightened up on the things that we do. When you lose a special player like that, you can’t have as many mistakes. So we got to figure that out.”
James had shifted into the Lakers’ third choice throughout their current scorching streak, with Doncic and Reaves shouldering essentially the most playmaking duties. In his final seven video games, James averaged 15.6 factors on 46.3% (25.0% from 3), 7.3 rebounds and seven.3 assists. He averaged solely 11.7 discipline aim makes an attempt in that stretch, effectively under his 18.6 per sport profession common.
“You got to flip the mindset a little bit when your role changes, whatever the case may be, or what’s needed out of [you for] the team,” James mentioned when requested how he’ll mentally put together for the problem forward. “So, the mindset changes a little bit, for sure.”
Redick mentioned he deliberate to develop the rotation within the interim, going from 9 gamers to presumably 11 and talked about that Kobe Bufkin, Nick Smith Jr. and Dalton Knecht would all be part of the crew in Dallas after enjoying for the South Bay Lakers within the G League playoffs.
“All hands on deck,” Redick added.
After enjoying the Mavs on Sunday, the Lakers have three straight video games towards groups that may issue into the Western Conference postseason image — Oklahoma City on Tuesday, the Golden State Warriors on Thursday, the Phoenix Suns on Friday — earlier than the season finale subsequent Sunday at dwelling towards the Utah Jazz.
“This team plays really extremely hard … ,” James mentioned of Dallas. “They just had a dogfight versus Orlando. We know we got OKC. We got Golden State, who is still fighting. We got Phoenix, who is still fighting. So, it’s going to still be a little tough on us. So, we got to be ready for that.”
