Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves remain out for the Lakers‘ Game 2 matchup against the Rockets on Tuesday, The Athletic’s Dan Woike notes (via Twitter). This was expected as the star backcourt continues to work its way back from a left hamstring strain and left oblique muscle strain, respectively.
While Doncic hasn’t been able to suit up in the playoffs, he has been a valuable presence on the bench, according to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times.
“I think people don’t know how much impact Luka has, not only on the court, but off the court,” teammate Rui Hachimura said. “He’s a guy that always wants to be around. … We love him just being around, just hanging out, talking. So, yeah, we’re happy that he’s back finally and he’s doing funny things always. … We missed him for sure.”
Turner writes that Doncic was active on the sideline during Game 1, providing both feedback and encouragement to his teammates. He remains without a firm timeline for return.
We have more from the Lakers:
- Lakers’ coach JJ Redick has loved what he’s seen from Luke Kennard, the hero of Game 1. One of his challenges for the elite shooter was sacrificing some efficiency for volume, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin notes (Twitter video link). “One of the things messaging-wise was, ‘You shooting six or seven threes a game at 38% for the series is better than you shooting three a game at 45%,‘” Redick said. “It’s unlikely he’ll go five-for-five every game, but I loved his level of aggression.” Teammate Jaxson Hayes says Kennard’s outburst came as no surprise. “I used to grow up watching him drop 40, 50 a game in high school,” Hayes said, per McMenamin (Twitter video link). “I’ve known he’s been able to do all that. I watched him do it.”
- Redick knows the Rockets will come out with desperation in Game 2 and is determined to have his Lakers match the energy they played with in Game 1, Benjamin Royer writes for the Orange County Register. “Every day requires something different,” he said. “Yesterday required an elevated recovery day. Today required an elevated focus. It was a longer film session. A decent amount of teach, talk on the court beyond just the practice session. Tomorrow is going to require an elevated sense of desperation on our part because they’re going to come in with that.”
- Hayes has been granted a Slovenian passport, per Michael J. Duarte of The California Post (Twitter video link), allowing him to play with Doncic during international play as the Slovenian team’s designated naturalized player. Hayes says that Doncic has been calling him “my Slovenian brother” since the paperwork came through.
Everybody loves Luka, everybody loves Porzingis. How come they could not get along in Dallas?
Ancient European beef
Cuban and the folks in Dallas acted as stereotypical Americans do, and thought that if they got two white sensible European guys who came from the Spanish league, those two would have a lot in common and gel well. That was a mistake.
I think that a lot of their incompatibility had to do with basketball itself. Luka doesn’t like soft pick-n-pop high-post operating 5s.
Kristaps is one of those bigs who don’t benefit that much from having a high-usage playmaking guard on his team. He did well in Washington and Boston without that type of player on his team.
How many times did Porzingis stand on the perimeter, and Luka (who is a worse 3-pt shooter) didn’t pass him the ball and shot it himself, and then looked at Porzingis as if asking: “why weren’t you under the basket to grab a rebound?”
And in general, if I were running the team, I’d be very careful about combining players from places that share backgrounds. It’s often best when there’s no connection whatsoever, and the guys can build a relationship from scratch, instead of figuring out possible differences.
It’s much safer to build a team around guys from Japan, Senegal and Omaha than around 3 Eastern Europeans.
Why is Luke Kennard smoking playoff teams in the year of our lordt, 2026?
This Lakers team is such a statistical oddity. Wild how they can lose 2 of their only 3 good players and still roll a KD-less Rockets.
Yeah what a convenient little coincidence huh! KD will be sitting out the entire first round, he might wait until they’re down 3 games to come back.
he is not missing the entire first round. stop making sh**t up.
From your lips to God’s ears. But that’s not gonna happen
Luke Kennard baby
Jebron Lames!