DALLAS — The sun rose over Dallas on Saturday morning and the Lakers were introduced to their stark new reality.
Luka Doncic suffered a Grade 2 left hamstring strain on Thursday in the Lakers’ loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, is out indefinitely and will miss the remainder of the regular season, the team announced Friday. They also announced Saturday afternoon, after Saturday’s practice and media availability, that Austin Reaves will also be unavailable for the rest of the regular season, having suffered a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury.
Doncic and Reaves are unlikely to play in the first round of the NBA playoffs, considering the average time of recovery for their respective injuries. Five games remain on the regular-season schedule, and Lakers coach JJ Redick now doesn’t have much of a choice.
“I don’t have the luxury of overreacting,” Redick said before Reaves’ injury status was known. “I don’t have the luxury of overreacting to an OKC blowout. I don’t have the luxury of overreacting to Luka getting hurt. My job has to be focusing on who’s available and getting those guys in a position to be successful.”
Those changes force LeBron James to again become the face of the Lakers’ schemes, just weeks after the team churned out a 15-2 record in March when the 41-year-old spent time making the smaller effort-based plays in the shadow of Doncic’s Western Conference Player of the Month display.
“It’s a challenge for us,” James said while the Lakers were still waiting for results on Reaves’ MRI. “It’s always got to be a next-man-up (mentality). But there’s no way you can replace that type of impact.”
Redick admitted that a priority at Saturday’s practice was making sure his team was in the “right frame of mind.” Forward Rui Hachimura said the practice was an opportunity for a reset. With Doncic’s injury and losing to the Thunder by 43 points, the forward said the Lakers (50-27) “needed” the pair of off days to refocus.
Reaves’ absence is now a part of the Lakers’ equation for the final five regular-season games and at least the first round of the NBA playoffs.
Indefinitely playing without Doncic and Reaves is a hurdle that the Lakers couldn’t have expected, predicted or prepared for, especially with the start of the playoffs just two weeks away.
The Lakers go into Sunday with a half-game lead on the fourth-place Denver Nuggets (50-28), a two-game lead on the fifth-place Houston Rockets (48-29) and a four-game lead on the sixth-place Minnesota Timberwolves (46-31). The Lakers hold the head-to-head tiebreaker against all three of those teams when it comes to Western Conference playoff seeding, having already won the season series against each one.
From a strategic standpoint, Redick said, the Lakers have no choice but to play differently. That means playing through James, Hachimura, center Deandre Ayton and reserve swingman Luke Kennard, he said.
James said he expects his role on the team to change going forward; and that when his role changes, it does require a mindset change. No matter how the Lakers go about rotations for the rest of the regular season, James was clear: There’s no replacing a player such as Doncic.
“It’s no filling it,” said James, who is averaging 20.6 points per game over 56 games this season, the third-best mark on the team behind Doncic and Austin Reaves.
“I mean, you got a guy who’s averaging 35-plus (points) and eight (assists) and seven (seven rebounds) and doing the things that he’s doing. You don’t replace that or try to even fill that. I think it’s up to all of us – whoever is in the lineup – to pick up our play.”
The Lakers’ present offensive options don’t include veteran guard Marcus Smart, who will miss another game Sunday against the Dallas Mavericks (24-53), Redick said.
Smart is still dealing with ankle soreness from when Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze fell on him two weeks ago, and will miss his seventh consecutive game.
Redick says the Lakers plan on bringing guard Dalton Knecht and two-way guards Kobe Bufkin and Nick Smith Jr. back into the fold with Reaves (the second ball handler behind Doncic) out and Smart (the third option) not yet ready to return.
All three reserve guards are due to arrive Sunday, Redick said, and he plans on running rotations with more players than the eight- or nine-man rotations that the Lakers had featured in recent weeks.
“We’ll probably have to play a 10- and 11-man rotation,” Redick said.
JAMES ON MEMPHIS, NBA CITIES AND HOTELS
While golfing in a video released earlier this week on the “Bob Does Sports” YouTube channel, James criticized the city of Memphis when discussing road trips that teams take to face the Memphis Grizzlies. He mentioned his disdain for the hotel that NBA teams stay at, as well as inferring that the team should relocate to Nashville, Tennessee’s capital city where the NFL’s Tennessee Titans and NHL’s Nashville Predators are based.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, former NBA player Kendrick Perkins and other media personalities chimed in on James’ comments about Memphis.
When asked if he had anything to add to clarify his remarks, James added Milwaukee, and his hometown, to the list.
“I’m 41 years old, there’s two cities I do not like playing in right now,” he said. “And that’s Milwaukee and that’s Memphis. What is your problem with it? I don’t like going home (Akron, Ohio) either … and I’m from there. People are ridiculous. They also get mad at my son being on the team, too. So, what are we talking about? People need to figure out other ways to put their energy to other things that’s important.”
James continued: “Like, seriously? I’m not talking about the city, like the people in Memphis. I don’t like staying at the Hyatt Centric. What’s wrong with that? Nothing. What are we talking about? What are we talking about? People need to chill the hell out.”
James is hardly the first NBA player to speak about a dislike for Memphis hotels. Most recently, Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards and Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green have shared remarks about the road living conditions when playing the Grizzlies.
LAKERS AT MAVERICKS
When: Sunday, 4:30 p.m. PT
Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas
TV/radio: NBA, Peacock/710 AM
