{"id":188123,"date":"2025-10-03T19:38:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T19:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/188123\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T19:38:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T19:38:07","slug":"lakers-to-sit-luka-doncic-for-first-two-preseason-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/188123\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers to sit Luka Doncic for first two preseason games"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dave McMenaminOct 4, 2025, 04:52 AM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN.
\nCovered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.<\/p>\n

PALM DESERT, Calif. — Luka Doncic<\/a> will not play in the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>‘ first two preseason games this weekend, the team announced Friday.<\/p>\n

The Lakers tip off their six-game preseason slate Friday against the Phoenix Suns<\/a> in Palm Desert. Then they play a road game against the Golden State Warriors<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The decision to hold the 26-year-old star was made by Doncic and the Lakers’ performance team, taking into consideration his EuroBasket participation and wanting to keep the long term in mind.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles will also be without LeBron James<\/a> (nerve irritation in his glute), Marcus Smart<\/a> (left Achilles tendinopathy), Maxi Kleber<\/a> (quad) and rookie Adou Thiero<\/a> (left knee swelling) against Phoenix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave McMenaminOct 4, 2025, 04:52 AM CloseLakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. Covered the Lakers and NBA for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-188123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}