The Los Angeles Lakers are very short-handed right now due to injuries. During Monday’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, they had only seven players on standard contracts available for action, as another seven players were out.
In addition to LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Jaxson Hayes, Adou Thiero and Maxi Kleber, who had already been out, guards Gabe Vincent and Marcus Smart were added to the list of men who couldn’t play. Vincent sprained his ankle on Sunday against the Sacramento Kings, and Smart has a quad contusion.
There is a chance Hayes and Smart return on Wednesday when Los Angeles visits the Minnesota Timberwolves. Both of them are listed as questionable.
Having Smart back would be big, as the Lakers lacked any real ball-handlers on Monday other than Austin Reaves, who is on an absolute tear to start the season. The Trail Blazers pressured Reaves full court, knowing he would lack an outlet, and he ended up committing eight turnovers.
Other than that, Reaves has been looking to carry the team. He’s averaging 35.8 points on 57.3% field-goal shooting and 42.9% from 3-point range, 8.5 assists and 6.8 rebounds a game, and he put up 41 points on Monday just one night after achieving a new career high of 51 points.