Two days ago, the Los Angeles Lakers had all the momentum before facing the Oklahoma City Thunder. That matchup gave JJ Redick’s team a reality check as they lost to the current champions by 43. To add more salt to their wounds, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves suffered season-ending injuries. The head coach was blamed for the former’s injury, but for the latter, he set the record straight.

Reaves has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury and will definitely be out of the five remaining regular-season games. In fact, ESPN’s Shams Charania also noted that the 27-year-old guard is expected to be out for four to six weeks. First, the Purple and Gold franchise lost Luka Doncic to a strained hamstring, and now AR. But this could have been identified sooner, thereby avoiding medical negligence.

“The second [MRI] was today. Again, I don’t know where the chain of command lies with Dallas imaging, but uh they scanned the wrong area. Not on our end. We made it explicit what was supposed to be scanned but they scanned the wrong area.” JJ Redick on Austin Reaves’ MRI at Saturday’s practice. The head coach couldn’t suppress a smile in frustration.

Against OKC on April 2, Austin Reaves was on the court for 27 minutes and scored 15 points on 5-of-9 shots. AR has faced calf issues before during the season, which ruled him out for an extended period of time. He missed 19 consecutive games with a Grade 2 left calf strain that he injured on Christmas Day against the Houston Rockets. Before that, he had missed three straight games for the Lakers, from Dec. 14-20, due to a calf strain.

This season, Austin Reaves genuinely took everyone by surprise. He became the number two option on the team and is averaging 23.3 points, 5.5 assists, and 49% from the FG. Truly an unfortunate end to the regular season for Reaves. It was a double whammy for the Lakers nation as Luka Doncic left the game in the third quarter and was later ruled out for an indefinite amount of time.

Before Austin Reaves’ injury, Redick avoided blame for Luka Doncic’s exit

It’s a Grade 2 hamstring injury, which will sideline Luka Doncic for four to eight weeks. Meaning his regular season is over, and his return could be closer to mid-May. It could be that the Lakers are already eliminated in the playoffs by that time. So, did the head coach take a risk by running him to the ground? The question arose when NBA on Prime’s broadcast captured Doncic receiving extensive medical work on his hamstring during the halftime break.

Despite this, Luka Doncic was back on the floor in the third quarter. In fact, Redick admitted the staff had considered pulling the starters, but then changed their minds. “Yeah, I mean, it was discussed at halftime, thought we’d give those guys about six minutes, and then we were going to, if we didn’t cut into the lead, we were going to pull them. And obviously it was around that time that, I don’t remember the exact time, but that happened.”

The decision not to pull out the starters put a little more strain on Luka Doncic. Unfortunately, the Slovenian is ruled out, and even his MVP and end-of-season awards are in danger. This adds more trouble for the Lakers, as they are just half a game ahead of the Nuggets and a 1.5-game lead over the No. 5-seed Rockets. They can easily slide down within the next five games.