Dave McMenamin
Multiple Authors
DALLAS — With the team already reeling from the Luka Doncic left hamstring strain diagnosis that will sideline him indefinitely, Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick said Austin Reaves underwent an MRI on his left oblique/rib area on Saturday, leaving the shooting guard questionable to play the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.
Despite being undermanned – guard Marcus Smart is also day-to-day after missing the last six games with groin and ankle injuries – Redick said the Lakers’ resolve is strong.
“Our mission, it hasn’t changed,” Redick said. “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 five games remaining. The Lakers also hold the tiebreaker against all three of those teams, by having already won the season series against each of them.
The team announced Friday that Doncic has a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, which typically involves a monthlong recovery. The Lakers have not provided a timetable for Doncic’s return beyond missing the rest of the regular season. The first round of the NBA playoffs begins in two weeks.
Reaves tweaked his left side in the first half of the Lakers’ 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday. He went back to the locker room for evaluation, but returned to the game and finished with a team-high 15 points in 27 minutes.
“I went back to get a rebound, overextended a little bit, and I felt something,” Reaves explained after the game. “But I feel decent right now, so we’ll see.”
Reaves required two MRI exams on the injury after the first one scanned the wrong area of his body.
“I don’t know where the chain of command lies with Dallas imaging, but they scanned the wrong area,” Redick said. “Not on our end.”
Both Reaves and Smart were not full participants in the team’s practice on Southern Methodist University’s campus on Saturday.
With Doncic out and Reaves’ status unknown, Redick said L.A. would divide the offensive burden between a handful of players, rattling off the names of LeBron James, Luke Kennard, Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton.
“I mean, it’s a challenge for us,” James said after practice. “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 option during their recent hot streak, with Doncic and Reaves shouldering the most playmaking duties. In his last seven games, James averaged 15.6 points on 46.3% (25.0% from 3), 7.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game. He only averaged 11.7 field goal attempts per game in that stretch – well below his 18.6 per game career average.
“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 said when asked how he will mentally prepare for the challenge ahead. “So, the mindset changes a little bit, for sure.”
Redick said he planned to expand the rotation in the interim, going from nine players to possibly 11 and mentioned that Kobe Bufkin, Nick Smith Jr. and Dalton Knecht would all join the team in Dallas after playing for the South Bay Lakers in the G League playoffs.
“All hands on deck,” Redick added.
After playing the Mavs on Sunday, the Lakers have three straight games against teams that will factor into the Western Conference postseason picture – Oklahoma City on Tuesday, the Golden State Warriors on Thursday, the Phoenix Suns on Friday – before the season finale next Sunday at home against the Utah Jazz.
“This team plays really extremely hard tomorrow,” James said of Dallas. “They just had a dog fight 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.”
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