If the Lakers are going to get back to their winning ways, after a tough loss against the Suns, it’ll have to be without Luka Dončić.
The team’s star guard will miss Thursday’s game against the Raptors for personal reasons.
Smart will also be out, which isn’t a surprise. He’s missed the last three games due to lower back injury management.
While not having Luka is far from ideal, if it’s for personal reasons, that indicates it’s an important matter. Whatever it is, he’s been given the okay to address it while LA heads to Toronto.
Luckily, it’s not an injury, so once he deals with his personal affairs, he should be ready to go.
Still, it’ll be harder to win without Luka. He’s playing at an MVP level, averaging 35.3 points, 8.9 rebounds and 8.9 assists per game.
That kind of production will be tough to replace.
On the plus side, the rest of the roster appears healthy and ready to go. Perhaps with Luka out, it’ll give LeBron James a chance to step up and get into a better groove. He’s still getting his body back in NBA shape after missing all of training camp and the first 14 games of the season.
In the team’s most recent contest against Phoenix, he wasn’t able to dominate offensively as he barely reached the double-digit mark in points late in the game. In doing so, he was able to extend his 10 or more points streak to 1,297.
The Lakers will need him to do a lot more than that to win in Toronto.
There’s also still plenty of offensive firepower on this Lakers team. Austin Reaves has proven he can light it up. He scored a career-high 51 points earlier this year in a win over the Kings with both Luka and LeBron out.
Reaves doesn’t have to try to get another 50, but if he stays aggressive and remains an elite on-ball facilitator, the Lakers should have a good chance of winning on the road even with their best player unavailable.