Following an impressive month of March, positivity the Los Angeles Lakers built up has plummeted with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves both suffering significant injuries.
Doncic was ruled out for the remainder of the regular season with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, and then Reaves was as well due to a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury.
According to Shams Charania of ESPN, Reaves will also miss the start of the postseason as his recovery timeline is around four to six weeks.
Lakers' Austin Reaves is expected to miss four to six weeks with the Grade 2 oblique injury, sources tell ESPN. Devastating run of injuries to L.A.'s two leading scorers. Reaves and Luka Doncic are expected to be sidelined to begin the NBA playoffs. https://t.co/E2495zVWqH
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 4, 2026
While Thursday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder was embarrassing, the main focus for L.A. has been to finish the regular season healthy. Unfortunately, that loss was costly in more ways than one as Doncic and Reaves are now both done for the regular season and potentially longer.
The Lakers were rounding into form in recent weeks and looked like a team that could make some noise in the postseason, although that will obviously be a lot more difficult to accomplish with their two leading scorers now out.
L.A.’s final five games are against the Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz. Securing the third seed remains plausible, but hard to imagine any playoff success without Doncic and Reaves in the lineup.
For Reaves, this injury comes at an especially unfortunate time as he was in the midst of a career year before reaching free agency this offseason. An impressive postseason could have established himself as a max-level player going into free agency, but now it remains to be seen what he will command considering he is now dealing with a second significant injury.
Regardless, there still should be mutual interest in a return to the Lakers, even if he isn’t able to play in the postseason.
Austin Reaves’ message for Luka Doncic
Before it was known that Reaves would be out as well, he offered well wishes for Doncic, who he has grown very close to over the last year.
“You wish for the best, obviously,” Reaves said on Spectrum SportsNet. “You don’t want to see anybody get hurt. But you just hold onto some faith for the best news possible. As I’ve gotten to know him the last year and a half, he’s a competitor so he’ll do all he can do to put himself in a position to come back when he can.”
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