Is Luka playing tonight? No. Luka Doncic is out with a grade 2 left hamstring strain, and Austin Reaves is out with a grade 2 left oblique strain, leaving the Lakers without both guards for Saturday’s 5:30 p.m. first-round playoff opener against the Houston Rockets at Crypto.com Arena.
J.J. Redick said Friday there was no update on Doncic or Reaves, and he framed the reality plainly: “there’s not.” The Lakers had already said after the April 2 game at Oklahoma City that both players would be out until the end of the regular season, and people not authorized to speak on the matter said the expected recovery window was four to six weeks. Doncic went to Spain to get treatment, while Reaves has been working in Los Angeles.
The absence matters because the Lakers are entering their 19th postseason without the starting backcourt that carried much of their offense down the stretch. Doncic and Reaves combined for 56.8 points, 13.8 assists and 12.4 rebounds per game, with Doncic leading the NBA in scoring at 33.5 points per game and ranking third in assists at 8.3. Redick said, “We love having Austin here and we’re glad he is in a position to do his return-to-play [work], however long it takes with us,” and added, “Excited to get Luka back and be around the group.”
That leaves the Lakers to adjust in the few days before a series against a Houston team waiting to test a thinner lineup. Redick said the focus during the playoff week has been on elevating the work in practice, and he added: “We all know the playoffs are different. They’re harder. There’s no easy matchups, and you have to be able to elevate your play.”
The clean answer is that Doncic will not play Saturday, and the deeper problem is what happens to the Lakers’ attack if they have to open the postseason without the two players who drove it most. The first game arrives anyway.
