The Lakers are set to face the Wizards in their next game at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena for the 75th game of the regular season. The team released their injury report ahead of the fixture.
According to the report, Luka Doncic is set to miss the Lakers’ next game after receiving his 16th technical foul of the season. But alongside him, Marcus Smart (right ankle contusion) and Adou Thiero (left knee soreness) will also not be available to play.
This will be Smart’s fourth missed game in what started as soreness and eventually became a contusion on his right ankle. While JJ Redick admitted that Smart’s absence is really hurting the team, missing Luka Doncic would definitely be a bigger blow to the team.
“He’s disappointed. He wants to be there for his teammates. And again, I’ve talked about this all year, he plays like he’s not a guy that takes games off, he can be banged up, but he’s going to play. He was like that when I was his teammate in Dallas.”
“For tomorrow, I think we’ve got some great contributions from guys that haven’t necessarily been in the nine-man rotation when we’ve been fully healthy.”
“Bronny’s had some good moments, Vando’s had some good moments, Maxi’s had some good moments, we’re gonna need everybody tomorrow,”concluded Redick.
Serving this suspension does not mean Doncic is off the hook for the rest of the season. Every alternate technical foul he receives from here onwards until the end of the regular season will lead to an automatic suspension.
It will get reset during the playoffs, where, after the first six technical fouls, Doncic will be liable for a one-game suspension following every alternate technical foul (seventh, ninth, and so on).
This game was hilariously considered as Doncic’s opportunity to beat Bam Adebayo’s scoring record, who had his 83-point game against the same tanking Wizards team. The Wizards will be on the second night of back-to-back games as they lost 88-123 to the Trail Blazers in Portland tonight.
They will likely also be shorthanded tomorrow night as Anthony Davis, Trae Young, D’Angelo Russell, and Kyshawn George will not be available for this game. While Alexandre Sarr and Tre Johnson are questionable due to injury management.
Therefore, the Lakers will have a solid opportunity to secure a victory in a must-win game. With just eight games left in the season, the Lakers (48-26) are just 1.5 games ahead of the Nuggets (47-28) in the third seed and three games ahead of the Timberwolves (45-29) and the Rockets (45-39).
Thus, every game from here onwards is a must-win game for the team in purple and gold.