{"id":588147,"date":"2026-04-06T01:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T01:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588147\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T01:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T01:36:08","slug":"lakers-and-lebron-james-face-uncertainty-without-injured-luka-doncic-and-austin-reaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588147\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers and LeBron James face uncertainty without injured Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS (AP) \u2014 Luka Doncic<\/a> and Austin Reaves<\/a> are finished for the rest of the regular season due to injuries, and the Los Angeles Lakers could finish anywhere from third to fifth in the Western Conference playoff race.<\/p>\n

For now, the Lakers will lean on LeBron James as their primary scorer and floor leader, while keeping in mind that the 41-year-old is wrapping up his record 23rd NBA season.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think we have to be mindful of that. I think that\u2019s a valid question,\u201d coach JJ Redick said before the Lakers visited the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night. \u201cFor all our guys, him included, we want to put them in positions to be successful. Certain guys are gonna be tasked with doing stuff they haven\u2019t done a lot of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doncic (left hamstring strain) and Reaves (left oblique strain) both were injured in a blowout loss to Oklahoma City on Thursday. It’s unknown when or if the NBA scoring leader and Reaves, the Lakers’ No. 2 scorer, will be available in the postseason.<\/p>\n

Of course, Doncic is the centerpiece of that conversation as an MVP candidate who will finish the season one game short of the 65 required to be eligible for that and other postseason awards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just know that he\u2019s gonna do everything he can to try to be back,\u201d Redick said. \u201cI talked to him Friday, I talked him again (Saturday), I talked with him again (Sunday) morning. He\u2019s gonna go through all the necessary things to be back at some point, and it\u2019s our job again to extend the season so that both those guys can get back.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Redick spoke of point guard by committee, an approach made necessary by another absence in Marcus Smart, who has a right ankle injury. Redick included James’ son, Bronny James, in that mix along with Luke Kennard, Nick Smith Jr. and the seldom-used Kobe Bufkin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think simplicity wins,\u201d Redick said. \u201cIt\u2019s nothing too crazy. But it\u2019s just being really simple with the menu and hopefully over the next five games, we can really figure out what works for this group. And that\u2019s obviously trial and error.\u201d<\/p>\n

James had a triple-double with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists in a victory over Washington last week when Doncic was serving a one-game suspension for receiving his 16th technical foul this season.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are virtually even with Denver for third and fourth in the West, and fifth-place Houston could end up chasing home-court advantage in the first round as well, particularly with the Lakers so wounded.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI mean, it\u2019s a challenge for us,\u201d James said after practice Saturday in Dallas. \u201cIt\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS (AP) \u2014 Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are finished for the rest of the regular season due…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,30097,63,5848,7235,3897,5145,63857,98706,7896,7232,11473,12843,9034,590,32209,5673,85,7897],"class_list":{"0":"post-588147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-austin-reaves","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-bronny-james","12":"tag-dallas-mavericks","13":"tag-denver","14":"tag-houston","15":"tag-jj-redick","16":"tag-kobe-bufkin","17":"tag-lebron-james","18":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","19":"tag-luka-doncic","20":"tag-luke-kennard","21":"tag-marcus-smart","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-nick-smith-jr","24":"tag-oklahoma-city","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-western-conference"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588147","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=588147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}