The Los Angeles Lakers released their injury report for Sunday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks and Marcus Smart (right ankle contusion) remains out while Jarred Vanderbilt (right calf soreness) is questionable.
That’s in addition to Luka Doncic (left hamstring strain) and Austin Reaves (left oblique muscle strain) being ruled out as both will miss the remainder of the regular season with their respective injuries.
The Lakers are being hit by the injury bug at the worst time as they were rolling in the month of March and looking like a team that could make a run in the regular season. Now, both Doncic and Reaves will likely be out for at least the first round, and Smart is set to miss his seventh straight game.
Smart resumed on-court work this past week and there was optimism that he would be able to return to the lineup in Dallas, although that is now not going to be the case. Given how many players are injured, it makes sense to continue to be cautious with Smart to ensure he is 100% healthy whenever he returns and not at risk of reggravating his injury.
Vanderbilt has been out of the Lakers’ rotation in recent weeks but with so many other key guys injured, he will see his role increase if he is able to suit up against the Mavericks.
Regardless, LeBron James will serve as the Lakers’ primary ball-handler moving forward while players like Bronny James, Kobe Bufkin, Dalton Knecht and Luke Kennard could all see time with the ball in their hands as well.
JJ Redick defends decision to play Luka Doncic & Austin Reaves through injuries
Both Doncic and Reaves were hobbling in the first half of the Lakers’ blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday. Despite that, JJ Redick chose to play both in the second half despite the game being out of reach and explained why.
“It was discussed at halftime,” Redick said on Spectrum SportsNet when asked about possibly sitting Doncic and Reaves. “Thought we’d give those guys about six minutes and if we didn’t cut into the lead we were gonna pull them. Obviously it was around that time, I don’t remember the exact time, [the injury] happened.”
While it will never be known what would’ve happened if Redick sat them, the reality is Doncic and Reaves are now both dealing with long-term injuries that have derailed what once looked like a promising season for the Lakers.
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