Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick announced that Austin Reaves is out in Sunday night’s preseason game against the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center. He joins Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Marcus Smart, Maxi Kleber and Adou Thiero on the sidelines, although Gabe Vincent will be in the lineup making his preseason debut.
Reaves doesn’t seems to be dealing with an injury, but Redick recently spoke about being cautious with him, James and Doncic this preseason knowing they will all carry big workloads in the regular season.
Meanwhile, Vincent missed practice early in training camp to manage the knee issue that has plagued him for the last two seasons. He then also sat out the preseason opener against the Phoenix Suns in Palm Springs on Friday night before now making his debut on Sunday.
With Reaves sitting out, Vincent will presumably take his place in the starting lineup alongside Jake LaRavia, Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton.
Outside of Reaves, the Lakers really struggled to score against the Suns so that will be an even bigger challenge in this one. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr announced that he plans to play his starters, including Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green, in the first half.
Redick has been open about not installing too many things yet, especially on the defensive end of the floor, so this should be a tough test against a Warriors team playing its stars.
JJ Redick on Lakers’ plan for Luka Doncic
Luka Doncic is missing his second straight Lakers preseason game despite not being injured. JJ Redick recently spoke about the plan for him this preseason in order to limit his workload after playing in EuroBasket this past summer.
“Our expectation is Luka will play in the preseason,” Redick said on Friday night. “We’re gonna use next week to continue to just get him in a good spot with his body and energy and all that stuff. He was great the first two days of camp, it was a lot. I think it made sense given his workload this summer to just kind of pull back. He’s in a great place physically, mentally. So we’ll just continue to use next week to get him ramped up and get all the guys acclimated with him.”
The Lakers get a week off after Sunday night’s game, giving them time on the practice court before their final four preseason games.
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