The Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James are in trouble. Only a day after it was revealed that star guard Luka Doncic will miss out the regular season with a hamstring strain, Austin Reaves suffered the same fate. Well, the team’s backup plans will be revealed when they lock horns with the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.
Austin Reaves injury update
Reaves will miss the remainder of the regular season with a muscle injury. As per ESPN’s NBA insider Shams Charania, the 27-year-old might be out for at least 4-6 weeks.
“Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury and will be out for the remainder of the regular season,” the team announced.
Reaves has averaged 23.3 points with 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists in 51 games (45 starts) this season. He missed 19 consecutive games earlier this season with a calf injury.
Luka Doncic injury update
On Friday, the Lakers said that Doncic has been ruled out of the regular season with a left hamstring strain.
Doncic ‘has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and will be out for the remainder of the regular season’, the Lakers, who have five games left in the regular season, said in a statement.
ESPN reported that Doncic, who leads the league in scoring, is ‘uncertain’ for the playoffs.
Doncic, who is averaging 33.5 points per game, 8.3 assists and 7/7 rebounds, limped out of the third quarter of the Lakers’ crushing 139-96 loss to the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday.
Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves
Reaves and Doncic had been key figures in the Lakers’ resurgence in March, where the team won 15 of 17 games to climb into third place in the Western Conference standings. The Lakers (50-27), have five more regular season games remaining, starting with Sunday’s road game against the Dallas Mavericks.
LeBron shares new update
Meanwhile, LeBron shared an unrelated update on social media. The 41-year-old posted a video with his son Bronny, who is also a part of the Lakers franchise. Last month, LeBron, the top scorer in NBA history, recorded the league’s first father-son assist when he passed to Bronny James for a 3-pointer in the second quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers ‘ game against Brooklyn.
“That was a special moment for us two, and a lot more to come down the road,” Bronny said after the Lakers beat the Nets 116-99.
