The Los Angeles Lakers were in control throughout against a woeful Bucks team on Wednesday night in Milwaukee, but certainly were not as dominant as they’ve been throughout the season. Luka Doncic had arguably his worst game this year, making just 10 of his 25 shots, with five assists and five rebounds–and still scored 32 points. Fellow star Austin Reaves was relatively quiet, too, with 18 points on just 10 shots.
But it wasn’t their on-floor performance that was the topic after the game. Both Reaves and Doncic suffered injuries in the win, their seventh straight and third on this three-game road trip. Doncic is dealing with an ankle injury and Reaves injured his heel.
According to coach JJ Redick, it is unclear if either will miss time. Said Redick: “(Reaves) X-rays are negative. We’ll get imaging tomorrow. No update until that. Luka, I think is fine. … No update on AR until we have imaging tomorrow.”
Lakers Hoping Nothing Major on Austin Reaves Injury
One issue with the current iteration of the Lakers, as good as they have been, is that they do get very thin very quickly if there are injuries, especially to Reaves or Doncic. The team was encouraged when it rested Doncic one night and Reaves another during the road trip, and won both games, but losing either for an extended period would be tough to handle, as would losing center Walker Kessler. The roster is just not deep enough to handle big-time injuries at this point.
But if Reaves does miss time, Doncic took the chin-up, keep-calm-and-carry-on stance, saying, “I think we just got to have next-man-up mentality. Obviously, we lose a very, very good player. Hopefully it’s not – it’s nothing. We got to have next-man-up mentality.”
As for his own injury, Doncic said: “I’m good. Obviously it’s painful a little bit but I’ll be fine. We got 3-0 in the road trip so that’s very good.”
The Lakers will return home, and don’t play again until Sunday in Phoenix.
Lakers’ Luka Doncic Has ‘Hope’ on Austin Reaves Injury