MRI machines have not been kind to the Los Angeles Lakers over the past 48 hours.
Lakers All-NBA and All-Star guard Luka Doncic suffered a left hamstring injury in the third quarter of the Lakers’ blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.
Doncic immediately appeared to be in substantial pain, and an MRI performed on Friday confirmed Doncic suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain, as announced by the Lakers, which will sideline him for the Lakers’ five remaining regular-season games and puts his playoff availability in doubt.
The hits kept coming on Saturday.
According to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, the Lakers will also be without Austin Reaves for the remainder of the regular season with a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Reaves “is expected to miss four to six weeks.”
The diagnosis is bad enough, but getting the diagnosis was doubly frustrating.
Before it was announced, Reaves had a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury. Lakers head coach JJ Redick was asked at Saturday’s practice if Reaves’ MRI was today. Redick couldn’t suppress a smile and took a moment before answering.
“The second one was today,” Redick said, per OC Register‘s Benjamin Royer.
Redick laughed before continuing, “I don’t know where the chain of command lies with Dallas imaging, but they scanned the wrong area. Not on our end. We were explicit in what was supposed to be scanned, but they scanned the wrong area.”
Doncic and Reaves have been the Lakers’ top-2 leading scorers this season. Doncic is on pace for his second career NBA scoring title at 33.5 points per game, and Reaves averaged a career-high 23.3 points per game.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown, so the Lakers will now turn to LeBron James to carry the load at 41 years old.
James has broken all-time records and displayed remarkable athleticism in his NBA-record 23rd season, but if he can lead the Lakers on a playoff run without Doncic or Reaves, that might be his most incredible feat yet.
The Lakers are 50-27 entering their game against the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas on Sunday. Before Doncic and Reaves went down with injury, the Lakers were expected to remain the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference when the NBA playoffs begin on April 18. That, along with everything else, is now in peril.
