{"id":567403,"date":"2026-04-06T06:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T06:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/567403\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T06:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T06:48:10","slug":"lebron-james-30-points-cant-save-injury-plagued-lakers-from-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/567403\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James’ 30 points can’t save injury-plagued Lakers from loss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DALLAS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Lakers<\/a> are as shorthanded as they can be, their dynamic starting backcourt of Luka Doncic<\/a> and Austin Reaves<\/a> out with injuries at a pivotal time of the season.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re the offensive engines for a Lakers team battling for the No. 3 playoff seeding in a competitive Western Conference.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old LeBron James<\/a> is now driving the Lakers, and despite falling just a rebound shy of a triple-double, he couldn\u2019t save the Lakers from a 134-128 loss<\/a> to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday at American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

James had 30 points, 15 assists and nine rebounds. Luke Kennard<\/a> delivered his first career triple-double with 15 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists.<\/p>\n

Dallas rookie Cooper Flagg<\/a>, coming off a 51-point performance against Orlando on Friday, finished with 45 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. He scored 19 points in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, Cooper is in a zone over the last couple of games,\u201d James said. \u201cBut [he] also has been playing consistent basketball all year so it\u2019s great to see him from early in the season to where he is today.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Lakers, finding ways to win without two of their best players will be their challenge over the final week of the season. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to have the commitment to do it on both ends and that\u2019s the reason that we\u2019ve put ourselves in the position to be in the playoffs,\u201d Redick said, \u201cbecause we became a really good offensive team and a really good defensive team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doncic was diagnosed with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and will be out the remainder of the regular season \u2014 maybe even longer.<\/p>\n

Doncic\u2019s agent, Bill Duffy of WME Sports, confirmed to The Times that his client will seek specialized treatment for his injury in Europe with the hopes of speeding up his recovery.<\/p>\n

Reaves was diagnosed with a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury and will be out for the rest of the regular season, and likely into the playoffs. The time frame for Reaves\u2019 return is more like four-to-six weeks, according to a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak on the matter.<\/p>\n

\"Dallas <\/p>\n

Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg, left, drives against Lakers guard Bronny James during the second half Sunday.<\/p>\n

(LM Otero \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cI took my nap after practice and I woke up with that news and it was like another shot to the [head],\u201d James said about Reaves\u2019 diagnosis. \u201cIt was a shot to the heart, obviously, and to the chest and to the mainframe with Luka, understanding that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Marcus Smart<\/a>, known for his competitiveness and defensive tenacity, missed his seventh straight game with right ankle soreness.<\/p>\n

With Doncic and Reaves out, the Lakers lose a combined 56.8 points per game and 13.8 assists per game. Doncic is fourth in the NBA in assists, with 8.3 per game, and he\u2019s second on the Lakers in rebounding, at 7.7 per game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that Austin was likely going to be out for a little bit of time,\u201d Redick said. \u201cObviously, disappointed and devastated for him to have his regular season finish this way. … Both those guys are going to try to come back and it\u2019s our job to extend the season so that they can come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers have four regular-season games left, starting with Oklahoma City on Tuesday at Crypto.com Arena. They play at Golden State on Thursday before facing the Phoenix Suns in L.A. on Friday.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The Lakers are tied with the Denver Nuggets for third in the West at 50-28, although the Lakers own the tiebreaker. The NBA playoffs starts the weekend of April 18.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, Redick was asked if he had an optimistic view of Doncic being back for the playoffs.<\/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 to him again yesterday. I talked to him again this morning. He\u2019s going to go through all the necessary things to be back at some point, and it\u2019s our job again to extend the season so both those guys can get back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Lakers are as shorthanded as they can be, their dynamic starting backcourt of Luka Doncic and Austin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[24796,11654,761,2310,5460,250647,8229,3014,355,472,250648,14763,13544,66657,17589,36315,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-567403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-assist","9":"tag-austin-reaves","10":"tag-cooper-flagg","11":"tag-friday","12":"tag-game","13":"tag-injury-plagued-lakers","14":"tag-loss","15":"tag-luka-doncic","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-no","18":"tag-pivotal-time","19":"tag-playoff","20":"tag-point","21":"tag-reaves","22":"tag-rebound","23":"tag-regular-season","24":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}