Without guards Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the 12th place Dallas Mavericks

In the Los Angeles Lakers’ first game without guards Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves due to injury, they fell 134-128 to the 25-53 Dallas Mavericks, who are in 12th place in the Western Conference yesterday.

Both players sustained their injuries in the Lakers’ blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday.

With a little under eight minutes left in the third against the Thunder, Dončić dribbled down the court, and as he went toward the paint, he lost control of the ball as he was double-teamed. Right after letting go of the ball, Dončić was noticeably shaken up and was limping around before he lied down on the ground.

He left the game and underwent an MRI on Friday, and it was announced later that day that he would be out for the remainder of the season with a grade 2 hamstring injury. Dončić’s agent told ESPN Sunday night that Dončić is heading to Europe to seek special treatment in hopes it will expedite the process and return to the player sooner.

In that same game, Reaves suffered his injury, but stayed in to play through the game. Afterwards, though, Reaves underwent two MRIs, where it was revealed he has a grade 2 oblique strain. The timetable for this injury is 4-6 weeks, so it will keep him out of at least the first round of playoffs.

The Lakers will be without their top two scorers going forward, but Head Coach JJ Redick said the team’s goal isn’t changing.

“Our mission, it hasn’t changed,” Redick said. “The rest of these guys and my staff, we’re going after the 3-seed and we’re going to try to win a playoff series. And we’ll see what happens with Luka.”

Their absence was felt in last night’s loss, however. In last night’s game, Luke Kennard and Jake LaRavia started and combined for 29 points. Kennard went 5-17 from the field and 1-5 from 3, while LaRavia went 3-11 from the field and 1-5 from 3.

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Forward LeBron James led the team with scoring with 30 points, as he had 15 assists and was one rebound away from a triple-double with nine rebounds. Forward Rui Hachimura also had a good game, dropping 21 points. Center Jaxson Hayes came off the bench to score 23 points.

Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg dropped 45 points as he led his team to victory.

The Lakers’ next game is tomorrow against the Thunder at Crypto.com Arena