The shorthanded Los Angeles Lakers dropped more bad news on the injury front as they listed Luka Doncic out for Friday’s critical match against the Denver Nuggets, the second night of a back-to-back schedule and the finale of their four-game road trip.
The Lakers labeled Doncic’s absence as left calf injury management and right ankle sprain. Doncic matched his season-high 45 points on Thursday, March 13, in Milwaukee, but it was not enough to prevent the Lakers from absorbing their third straight loss.
The Bucks overwhelmed the undermanned Lakers 126-106. Another loss and a Houston Rockets win over the injury-hit Dallas Mavericks would drop the Lakers to fifth place in the loaded Western Conference.
The Lakers’ injury list doesn’t stop with Doncic as Gabe Vincent (left knee injury management) and Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle injury management) are doubtful. At the same time, Trey Jemison III (illness) is questionable against the Nuggets.
They are already without their starting frontcourt of LeBron James (left groin strain) and Rui Hachimura (left patellar tendinopathy) and Jaxson Hayes (right knee contusion).
With their spate of injuries, the Lakers are 6.0 underdogs against the Nuggets at Wildz.
3 Back-to-Back Games in 1 Week
The Lakers are in a precarious situation with their top stars nursing injuries during their toughest stretch in the season, playing six games in eight days.
“I don’t think I’ve ever went through something like that,” Doncic said of the Lakers’ grueling schedule following their loss in Milwaukee. “But at the end of the day, we’re getting paid to do that and there shouldn’t be any excuses that you’re tired. You live for this. Just gotta have great recovery after every game and just keep going.”
It turns out Doncic needs more recovery time.
“The mindset is we gotta keep going,” Doncic continued. “We got three really important players out, so it’s always gonna be tough when there’s three or four starters out. It’s always tough… But the winning teams always go through something and we’re kind of experiencing that now. But we just gotta learn from it and go into the next game with the mentality that we could win this game and we want to win this game.”
The Lakers’ losing streak started when James suffered the groin injury in Boston at the beginning of their trip.
James previously missed 17 games during the 2018-19 season with a groin injury. The Lakers were fourth in the Western Conference at the time of James’ injury. Without him, a young Lakers team back then went 5-12 and ultimately bowed out of playoff contention.
The Lakers are banking on the cushion they built with their 20 wins in 25 games before this losing streak to stay afloat.
After this nightmare road trip, they head home to face another hell of a schedule — back-to-back games against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday, March 16, and San Antonio Spurs on Monday, March 17. Then they will have their third back-to-back games in one week against the Nuggets on March 19 and the Bucks on March 20.
Lakers Need Another Herculean Effort From Austin Reaves
Lakers coach JJ Redick has to dig deep into their reserves with only four players in their regular rotation available.
Austin Reaves has to replicate his career-high 45-point performance in the Lakers’ upset win over the Indiana Pacers last month sans James and Doncic to stand a chance against the Nuggets.
Aside from Reaves, Redick will lean heavily on Jarred Vanderbilt, Dalton Knecht, Jordan Goodwin (two-way) and Shake Milton.
Their remaining available players are Christian Koloko (two-way), Markieff Morris, Alex Len, Bronny James and Cam Reddish.
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