Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic both suffered significant muscle injuries in the same game, on April 2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Reaves had a Grade 2 left oblique strain and was given a 4-6-week recovery timeline, while Doncic’s Grade 2 left hamstring strain was closer to 6-8 weeks.
Reaves, though, ended up returning in under four weeks to help the Lakers close out the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs. Doncic did not return for the remainder of the season. It appears that the Los Angeles Dodgers’ biomechanics system provided some assistance for Reaves, according to Yaron Weitzman of Yahoo Sports:
Bolstering the performance staff appears to be Friedman’s and Zaidi’s other priority. “We’re working in collaboration with some of the Dodgers folks to bring in a biomechanics lab,” Pelinka told reporters. Until then, players may have to get used to working with the baseball group at Dodger Stadium. That, according to two league sources, is what the Lakers told Austin Reaves to do while he was rehabbing from an oblique injury during the playoffs.
The acquisition of the Lakers by new majority owner Mark Walter was expected to help L.A. advance into a new era, and this is one of the ways where that is already happening. The introduction of a biomechanics lab to help with body maintenance and injury rehab is not something that the Lakers have ever publicly discussed before Walter took over.
This modernization of the Lakers franchise could be a scary sight for the rest of the league, who have all seen what the Dodgers have accomplished under this ownership. Reaves being able to return quicker than the expected timeline shows a new direction for L.A., as those types of things rarely ever happened for the Lakers under previous ownership.
Lakers’ Mark Walter named SBJ Executive of the Year
Last year, Walter officially purchased the Lakers, becoming the controlling owner of the franchise. Walter has had a ton of success in recent years with his sports ownership teams, primarily the Dodgers, but he also owns the Los Angeles Sparks and motorsports organization Andretti Global while having a stake in Premier League soccer club Chelsea.
With how much Walter has increased his footprint in sports around the world, and the immense success he has experienced, it is only right that the Sports Business Journal named him their Executive of the Year as part of their annual award announcement on Wednesday.
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