The Los Angeles Lakers released their injury report for Thursday’s big matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Marcus Smart (right ankle contusion) continues to be listed as out.
Smart has missed the Lakers’ last five games with the ankle injury, although head coach JJ Redick has maintained that it is not serious and is considered day-to-day. While that may be the case, Redick stressed that they will continue to be cautious and will not bring Smart back until he is 100% healthy considering the start of the playoffs is just around the corner.
While that makes perfect sense, not having Smart against the Thunder certainly wouldn’t be ideal as he is the team’s best perimeter defender.
Jake LaRavia has done a nice job jumping into the starting lineup and providing point-of-attack defense in Smart’s absence, and that will need to continue on Thursday if the Lakers want to have a chance at upsetting the best team in the NBA and defending champions.
Without Smart, the Lakers have also turned to Bronny James for rotation minutes off the bench, and that could continue in Oklahoma City.
JJ Redick believes Luka Doncic is MVP if Lakers finish strong
As the NBA regular season winds down, the MVP debate is heating up. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama are the two favorites, but Luka Doncic is still in the mix as well. And given how well he has been playing lately, Redick believes he should win the award if the Lakers finish the season strong, which obviously includes two big matchups with the Thunder.
“I would just say that if we continue to finish the season the way we’re playing right now, and he continues to play that way — to me, he is the MVP,” Redick said. “But sometimes there’s recency bias and sometimes there’s the bias of a certain stretch of the season. When we started 15-4, you could’ve made an argument that he was the MVP then. He’s been the MVP for two of the three segments of the season.
“But I’ve said this all year, our losses are just so loud. I use that Jan. 18 day all the time. I don’t know what it is as of today, but as of our film session yesterday, we were tied for second in the league since Jan. 18 in terms of total wins. It hasn’t been as bad as people have made it out to be, particularly when you factor in all of the injuries that we’ve had, like a number of teams. I think we all feel really comfortable with where our top nine is when we’re healthy and he’s the engine that’s driving all of our winning. Certainly, we have a ton of guys starring in their roles. But he’s the driver.”
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