For the second straight Monday, the Los Angeles Lakers will face the Portland Trail Blazers on the second night of a back-to-back and this time they will be even more shorthanded than the first. The Lakers have ruled both Luka Doncic (lower left leg contusion injury management) and Austin Reaves (right groin soreness) out for their road contest in Portland.
This will be the fourth missed game of the year for Doncic, who came back from this leg contusion as well as a finger issue to drop 44 points in his first game back. That was followed by his first triple-double of the year in Sunday’s victory over the Miami Heat.
In Doncic’s absence it has been Reaves who stepped up in a major way with a 51- and 41-point outing, not to mention a buzzer-beating floater. But now, the Lakers will have to make due without both of their outstanding backcourt players, as well as LeBron James, who has yet to debut this season while dealing with right sciatica.
Adou Thiero (left knee surgery recovery) and Gabe Vincent (left ankle sprain) also remain out, but the Lakers could have some frontcourt reinforcements. Deandre Ayton is listed as questionable with the back spasms that kept him out of Sunday night’s win while Maxi Kleber is also questionable with an abdominal muscle strain.
With nearly their entire backcourt rotation out the Lakers will be heavily reliant on veteran Marcus Smart, who was solid on Sunday, as well as Jake LaRavia, who has been excellent throughout the Lakers’ three-game win streak. An even bigger role for Bronny James, who played 18 minutes in Sunday’s win, should also be expected as the second-year guard continues to find his path early on in his career and Dalton Knecht should also see heavy minutes as the Lakers will be in great need of his offensive firepower.
It will take an entire team effort for the Lakers to take down this Blazers team who has carried over their strong play from the end of last season into this year with veteran guard Jrue Holiday and talented forward Deni Avdija leading the way.
Lakers’ Austin Reaves believes Bronny James will continue to grow with more minutes
Even more minutes will be coming Bronny James’ way Monday night against the Trail Blazers after a promising performance on Sunday. Austin Reaves praised him for his play and believes he will continue to get better with more opportunity for important minutes like that.
“I thought he was good. I thought he played really good minutes,” Reaves said of Bronny. “He was good defensively, did the right things offensively. The more he continues to get those minutes, the better he’ll be. We needed the minutes that he gave us tonight. Looking forward to him continuing to do that.”
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