The Los Angeles Lakers saw injuries to Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and Collin Sexton in their Wednesday night win over the Milwaukee Bucks. While both Doncic and Sexton don’t appear to have long-term issues, one injury may have contributed to the other.
Doncic went down with an ankle injury in the fourth quarter, and while the Lakers star said that he’d be fine, according to head coach JJ Redick, the health concern could have been easily avoided, as it was Sexton’s brief absence that resulted in the Slovenian guard going down.
Sexton received stitches during the Bucks game after banging heads with Ryan Rollins in the fourth quarter, and as Redick told reporters postgame, him being back in the locker room likely resulted in Doncic suffering his ankle injury.
JJ Redick On How Collin Sexton Inadvertently Caused Luka Doncic Injury
While discussing the injury status of each of his three key guards, Redick revealed that if Sexton wasn’t getting stitches after his head was bloodied following a collision with Rollins, then Doncic wouldn’t have been on the court when the Lakers’ game was all but decided.
“Collin is getting sutures in his temple, whatever area he got hit,” Redick said. “I don’t think Luka would have gotten back in the game had Collin not busted his head open.”
Reaves also went down during the Lakers’ win with a heel injury. There’s hope it doesn’t become a big issue, following some early updates, but with him and Sexton both out near the end of the game, Redick thinks Doncic’s need to return ended up resulting in the franchise star going down.
“Not having Collin, not having AR, you put Luka back in. You’re going to play him for two minutes, and he either keeps the lead or builds the lead. Then he tweaks his ankle,” he added. “There’s just nothing you can do about that.”
There haven’t been any official injury updates given by the Lakers on Sexton, Doncic, or Reaves, but according to some postgame comments, it looks like Los Angeles might have avoided a major disaster as the team’s win streak was extended to eight games in a row.
Lakers Injury News On All Three Guards
As for Doncic, he went down in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury, but according to both him and the star himself, everything seems to be ‘fine.’
“I think [Doncic] is fine,” Reddick said. “Just a light tweak.”
“Obviously, it’s painful a bit, but I’ll be fine,” Doncic told reporters after the game.
As for Sexton, he received stitches after his head-to-head collision with Rollins, which resulted in the Lakers-Bucks game briefly being stopped. Los Angeles’ backup point guard didn’t return to the contest, but appeared to avoid a concussion, and the team is positive about his status moving forward.
“Sexton knocked noggins with Ryan Rollins, but it sounds like he’s avoided a concussion, so he should be able to get out there for Sunday’s game in Phoenix,” RotoWire staff wrote about his injury.
As for Reaves, his status might be the biggest concern, as the star shooting guard went down in the third quarter with a heel injury. Redick doesn’t think it was an Achilles injury, which would have been the worst-case scenario, but the Lakers still don’t have a full scope of the severity of the issue or his availability going forward just yet.
“His X-rays were negative,” Redick said about Reaves’ heel injury. “We will get imaging tomorrow.”
The Lakers saw all three of the team’s guards go down with injuries on Wednesday night, and while no official updates have been given on if or how long each will be out, Redick’s comments about Sexton’s absence resulting in Doncic going down aren’t positive news for a Los Angeles team playing at a strong level to start the season.
Lakers Get Concerning Luka Doncic Injury News After Another Guard Goes Down