Apr 06, 2026
3 min read
Lakers guard Austin Reaves has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and will be out for the remainder of the regular season.
DALLAS - Already suffering from a diagnosis of a strained left hamstring that will sideline him indefinitely, the Los Angeles Lakers announced Saturday that Austin Reaves has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 strain in his left hamstring and will be out for the remainder of the regular season.
Although the team did not provide a timetable for his return, sources told Shams Charania that Reaves is expected to miss four to six weeks.
Reaves underwent an MRI of the oblique/rib area on Saturday.He was originally listed as questionable to play Sunday against the Dallas Mavericks.
Marcus Smart was ruled out against the Mavs on Saturday — missing his seventh straight game — while Jarred Vanderbilt was added to the injury report as questionable with right calf soreness.
Coach JJ Redick said Saturday that the Lakers' determination is strong, even without the man.
"Our mission hasn't changed," Redick said."The rest of those guys and my teammates, we're going to go after No. 3 and try to win the playoffs. And we'll see what happens with Luke."
Los Angeles (50-27) leads the No. 4 Denver Nuggets by a half game, two games back of the No. 5 Houston Rockets and four games back of the No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves with five games remaining.The Lakers are tied against all three teams by winning the season series.
The Lakers were told on Friday that Doncic has a second-degree hamstring injury, which usually involves a month-long recovery.The ugly Lakers schedule didn't give Doncic time to return in addition to the rest of the lineup.
Reaves switched to his left side in the first half of the Lakers' 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday.He returned to the locker room for evaluation, but returned to the game and finished with 15 points in 27 minutes.
"I relaxed, I stretched a little bit, I felt something," Reeves explained after the game.But I feel good now, so we'll see."
After the first scan of the wrong part of his body, Reeves needed two MRI scans of the injury.
"I don't know where the command is with the Dallas team, but they were looking in the wrong place," Redick said.“Not on our side.
In addition to Doncic and Reaves, Redick said Los Angeles must split the heavy load among a handful of players, banging out the names of James LeBron, Luke Kennard, Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton.
"I mean, it's a challenge for us," James said after practice."It's always a next-man-up [mentality]. But there's no way you can change that kind of impact. So it's going to be a collective group. We're all going to have to find a way to do a little bit more. ... But now you've got to be even tougher on the things we do.
"When you lose such a special player, you can't make that many mistakes. So we have to figure that out."
James has morphed into the third option for the Lakers during their recent hot streak, with Doncic and Reaves handling most of the playmaking duties.In his last seven games, James is averaging 15.6 points on 46.3% shooting (25.0% from 3), 7.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists.He has averaged just 11.7 field goal attempts per game in that stretch, well below his career average of 18.6.
"When your role changes you have to change your mind a little bit, no matter what you want from the team," James said when asked how he mentally prepares for the challenges ahead."So, the mentality changes a little bit, for sure."
Reddick said he plans to temporarily expand the rotation from nine players to 11, citing Kobe Bufkin, Nick Smith Jr.and Dalton Knecht have joined the team in Dallas after playing in the G League playoffs with the South Bay Lakers.
“All hands on deck,” Reddick said.
After playing the Mavericks on Sunday, the Lakers have three games against teams in the Western Conference postseason picture -- Oklahoma City on Tuesday, the Golden State Warriors on Thursday, the Phoenix Suns on Friday -- before next Sunday's season finale at home against the Utah Jazz.
"This team is really, really tough to play against," James said of Dallas. "They just battled each other against Orlando. We know we've got OKC, we've got Golden State still fighting. We've got Phoenix still fighting. So it's still going to be a little tough for us. So we've got to prepare ourselves for that."
Following the news of Reeves' injury, DraftKings increased the Lakers to 120–1 to win the NBA Finals and 80–1 to win the Western Conference.Before Friday, the Lakers were 30-1 for the title and 15-1 for the conference, but Doncic's injury announcement dropped them to 100-1 and 60-1, respectively.
Doug Greenberg contributed this report.
