DALLAS — Sunday is a new day for the Lakers.
No more Luka Doncic. No more Austin Reaves. For the next five games, the Lakers are flying with LeBron James leading the way and what Lakers coach JJ Redick said would be almost entirely new lineups throughout the game.
Through “trial and error,” Redick said he’s hoping that he can find some solutions for how his team will adjust to playing without Doncic and Reaves – both of whom earned regular-season-ending diagnoses (which is likely to extend into at least the first round of the NBA playoffs) from injuries sustained during Thursday night’s 40-plus-point defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“Both those guys are going to try to come back,” Redick said before Sunday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks. “And it’s our job to extend the season so that they can come back.”
Part of that is going to be finding out how the Lakers will best bring the ball down the court; down the likes of Doncic, Reaves and Marcus Smart (right ankle contusion), who missed his seventh consecutive game on Sunday. Redick mentioned guards Kobe Bufkin, Nick Smith Jr. and Bronny James as options in that role for the remainder of the regular season, along with swingman Luke Kennard, who earned the start against Dallas.
“We’ll just have to re-emphasize that anytime we’re getting pressure, we can also just use our fives as outlets,” Redick said. “There’s a chance we call other guys up this week to help us finish the regular season, we’re just taking it day by day like we have all year.”
Outside of the Lakers’ blowout defeat to the San Antonio Spurs before the All-Star break, there hadn’t been much time for Bronny James to play point guard in the NBA. Against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the 21-year-old played 18 minutes, including much of the fourth quarter without Reaves on the floor.
Bronny James told the Southern California News Group that playing against the league’s top defense, which forced him to turn the ball over three times, provided a learning experience for him heading into this final two-week stretch.
“I think I learned a lot,” Bronny James said. “Just trying to not play with the ball as much; get my team into whatever action we are in as quick as possible. … We just need to take care of the ball better.”
Bronny James, along with Bufkin, Knecht and Smith, have played heavy minutes alongside each other for the South Bay Lakers, who compete in the G League Western Conference Finals on Sunday night. Bronny James called the group of G League-to-NBA guys as “hungry.” Bufkin said he learned of his return to the Lakers before the South Bay Lakers defeated the Rio Grande Valley Vipers 112-97 to advance to the semifinals.
“I saw the news 30 minutes before tip off at South Bay,” Bufkin told the Southern California News Group. “My agent sent me a text: ‘Go out there and ball hard at the South Bay game. And be ready to leave.’”
Bufkin said that Knecht (23 points and 14 rebounds on Friday) and Smith (18 points on Wednesday) are ready to go, potentially filling rotation minutes the rest of the way.
“We’re prepared; all of us” Bufkin said.
Redick addresses decision to keep Doncic and Reaves in game against Thunder
When asked if Redick, the ESPN analyst, would have agreed with his decision to keep Doncic and Reaves in the game against the Thunder – after both Lakers stars nursed their injuries into halftime – he said that he would.
Redick said that he can only go off the information he has, and that he was told that the training staff medically cleared Doncic and Reaves to re-enter the game.
“As a coach, you go on the information you have. (Doncic) was medically cleared,” Redick said. “When Austin came back, I asked directly, ‘I thought he was hurt.’ (I was told), ‘No, he’s medically cleared.’ The group wanted to go for it in the second half.”
He added that Doncic, the league’s leading scorer, is going to do everything in his power to return during the playoffs for the Lakers.
“I just know that he’s gonna do everything he can to try to be back,” I talked to him Friday, I talked to him again yesterday, I talked to him again this morning. He’s going to go through all the necessary things to be back at some point.”