![\"Lakers,](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2258773312-e1769698238487.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Luka Doncic #77 of the Los Angeles Lakers argues a call with referee Brent Barnaky #36 during the third quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Arena on January 28, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. <\/p>\n
Fans of the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> held their collective breath Wednesday night when Luka Doncic<\/a> fell backward on the court after attempting a fadeaway three-pointer early in the first quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n Doncic would stay on the ground for an extended period, clutching his lower left leg, before leaving for the locker room. He returned nearly six minutes later to finish the quarter, but he was clearly bothered by his ankle.<\/p>\n \u201cI kind of got scared, it wasn\u2019t a great feeling,\u201d Doncic said after the game.<\/a> \u201cLooking back at the video, I think I got a little bit lucky. It hurts more now, but I tried to go.\u201d<\/p>\n JJ Reddick Calls Court \u2018A Safety Hazard\u2019<\/p>\n After the 129-99 loss to the Cavaliers, Lakers head coach JJ Redick<\/a> squarely blamed the raised court at the Rocket Arena for Doncic\u2019s injury scare.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is absolutely a safety hazard,\u201d Redick said of the Rockets<\/a> Arena\u2019s raised court, whose floor sits a few inches below the playing surface.<\/p>\n While Doncic survived an injury scare, Miami Heat<\/a> guard Dru Smith wasn\u2019t as fortunate in 2023 when he suffered a torn ACL after a freak injury saw him land awkwardly near the bench area. At the time, the Miami Heat lodged a complaint with the NBA, and players such as LeBron James urged the league<\/a> to fix the issue.<\/p>\n Redick can\u2019t fathom why the Cavaliers\u2019 court remains unchanged.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know why it\u2019s still like that,\u201d Redick said of the Cavs not fixing their court. \u201cA lot of times you don\u2019t see any change when you lodge a formal complaint.\u201d<\/p>\n Luka Doncic Injury Update<\/p>\n When Doncic saw the replay of him slipping on the court, he admittedly thought of Dru Smith\u2019s unfortunate injury in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the first thing I thought,\u201d Doncic said, referencing Smith\u2019s injury.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I got scared. It\u2019s the only court that\u2019s like this, so I guess it\u2019s my fault, so I stopped jumping like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite Doncic\u2019s return to the game, the Lakers had no shot against the Cavaliers on Wednesday, as they were outscored 72-44 in the second half of a blowout loss. The biggest issue for the Lakers was their defense and 3-point shooting, as Redick\u2019s team shot 9-of-32 from deep (28%) and allowed the Cavaliers to shoot 53% from the floor. Not surprisingly, the Lakers rank 17th in the league 3P% and 25th in defensive rating.<\/p>\n The Lakers (28-18) will conclude their eight-game \u201cGrammy Road Trip\u201d with stops against the Washington Wizards on Friday, the New York Knicks<\/a> on Sunday and the Brooklyn Nets<\/a> next Tuesday. The franchise hopes to get star guard Austin Reaves at some point during the road trip<\/a>, with a strong possibility of a return on Friday.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Luka Doncic #77 of the Los Angeles Lakers argues a call with referee Brent Barnaky #36 during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-568787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115979244816531923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}