The Los Angeles Lakers have found a way to manage in their first round series against the Houston Rockets despite their top two scorers Luka Doncic (left hamstring strain) and Austin Reaves (left oblique muscle strain) being out with injuries.
Reaves appears to be further along in his recovery than Doncic as he was listed as questionable for both Games 3 and 4 before ultimately being ruled out. Doncic is not nearly as close to returning but is still making some progress.
“He just continues to kind of do some stuff on the court,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said of Doncic before Game 4. “He was able to move a little bit today on the court, which you know, most of the stuff has been standstill. So he’s progressing, but no update on any timeline or anything like that.”
The good news for Doncic is the Lakers have been taking care of business without him in the first round so he does not need to rush back.
L.A. jumped out to a 3-0 series lead before dropping Game 4 to the Rockets in Houston.
If the Lakers are able to close out the Rockets in Game 5 to advance to the second round, they should get a few days off before opening up their next series, likely against the Oklahoma City Thunder. That should give Doncic an opportunity to get on the practice court with his teammates as he continues his ramp-up, although they of course still need to get that fourth win to make it happen.
Considering Reaves was close to returning in Game 4 though, perhaps he will find his way into the Game 5 lineup.
JJ Redick feels Luka Doncic should be MVP finalist
Doncic’s injury came at an unfortunate time at the end of the regular season as he was playing his best basketball of the year and was starting to make some waves in the MVP conversation.
Once he went down though, that ended any chances of him winning the award as the 27-year-old wasn’t even named a finalist, which naturally didn’t sit right with Redick.
“Disappointed,” Redick said of Doncic not being an MVP finalist. “I think he deserved to be there and I think all three guys that did end up being finalists had strong cases. A lot of this, unfortunately, is media momentum.
“Sometimes a team, I guess we underperformed even though we didn’t have any expectations coming into the year. But I guess we underperformed for a couple months despite him getting Player of the Month one of those months. The media momentum just never got built.”
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