![\"Luka](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2209462103-e1746278649804.jpg\")
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Lakers president Rob Pelinka vows to fix their biggest issue in the aftermath of the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade.<\/p>\n
Washington Wizards big man Anthony Davis thought that Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> were legitimate championship contenders before the Slovenian went down with a grade 2 hamstring strain.<\/p>\n When asked to name his list of title contenders recently, Davis spoke about the untimely injuries suffered by Doncic and Austin Reaves<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI had the Lakers [as title contenders] before this Luka and Austin thing happened,\u201d Davis said on \u201cThe Draymond Green Show\u201d podcast.<\/a><\/p>\n Davis picked the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> as the favorites to repeat as NBA champions, while naming the Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs<\/a> as three other teams with the personnel to win it all. Davis also felt the Golden State Warriors<\/a> could pull off an upset or two while riding the greatness of Stephen Curry<\/a>.<\/p>\n Anthony Davis Praises Doncic<\/p>\n Earlier in the podcast, Davis raved about Doncic\u2019s offensive skillset while claiming that he also fantasized about being teammates with the Slovenian superstar. As such, he was shocked when he was sent to the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> as part of the Doncic trade.<\/p>\n \u201cLuka is so cold, bro,\u201d Davis said of the Lakers star.<\/p>\n \u201cWe used to talk about Luka all the time. At the time, I wasn\u2019t sure what Bron [LeBron James] was gonna do. I was just saying in general, the next thing as far as what he can do, who can be close to Bron, was Luka as far like the height, the passing ability, to score. All that as far as helping my game.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like man, \u2018If I ever got with Luka, oh my gosh.’\u201d<\/p>\n Lakers Injury Woes<\/p>\n As Davis alluded to, the Lakers are expected to be without Doncic and Reaves in the first round of the playoffs, where they are most likely to face the Houston Rockets<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lakers head coach JJ Redick plans to use the final three regular-season games \u2014 against the Golden State Warriors on Thursday, the Phoenix Suns<\/a> on Friday, and the Utah Jazz<\/a> on Sunday \u2014 as an opportunity to figure out his rotations for the playoffs.<\/p>\n \u201cYou obviously have to tackle the situation in front of you, that we have \u2014 a unique situation in front of us,\u201d Redick said of the Lakers injury woes, via ESPN.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAnd we\u2019ve got to prepare our team, our group that we\u2019re going to have available to play in the playoffs series. \u2026 How we approach next week leading into Game 1, it\u2019s finding who\u2019s going to be able to play in the playoffs for us. \u2026 The seeding part probably went out the window after the OKC game.\u201d<\/p>\n Doncic is currently in Madrid, Spain, to seek alternative treatment for his strained hamstring, hoping to rejoin his Lakers teammates at the earliest. As for Reaves, the fifth-year guard is expected to miss at least four weeks of action with an oblique injury.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Lakers president Rob Pelinka vows to fix their biggest issue in the aftermath of the Luka Doncic-Anthony…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-382859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}