At some point during the Lakers preseason, Luka Doncic will appear in a game.
The question is when.
Even after participating fully in Saturday’s practice, Lakers coach JJ Redick said Doncic was “TBD” when asked if his star guard would play in Sunday’s exhibition game against the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena.
Redick said Austin Reaves will play and Marcus Smart will play in his first preseason game of the season.
The Lakers will play six preparatory games, including three after the game against the Warriors.
After practice, Doncic was asked when he would play.
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “We need to talk about it – JJ and my team. So, I don’t know yet. But I’ll probably end up playing two preseason games.”
When the regular season begins on October 21 at home against the Warriors, Doncic will not have his running mate LeBron James at his side.
James has been diagnosed with a right-sided sciatic nerve problem, the Lakers announced to media Thursday, saying he will be re-evaluated in approximately three to four weeks.
James and Doncic formed a great partnership when they played together after the shocking blockbuster trade last February.
Not having James to start the season must be destabilizing for Doncic and the Lakers.
“It’s a big change,” Doncic said. “He’s a great player. He can help us a lot. But at the end of the day our mentality has to be next man up. We have a group of guys who have been training and I hope LeBron can join us as soon as possible. We’ll obviously need him. But our mentality has to be next man up. That’s it.”
Doncic will get plenty of help from Reaves, Smart, Deandre Ayton, Jared Vanderbilt and others with James out.
Still, the assumption is that Doncic will have to carry a heavy load with James sidelined.
“No, I don’t see it that way,” Doncic said. “I just want to play basketball. If I do less, if I do more, whatever it takes for me to win.”
James didn’t practice at all, but Doncic said that didn’t stop them from realizing the team could still perform at a high level.
“It’s not everything that happens on the court. That’s what I said,” Doncic said. “It’s also about chemistry off the field. So obviously now it’s a little more off the field, but as we were watching practice this week, we talked about it a lot.”
The Lakers continue to move forward without James
They knew over the summer that James was suffering from a “nerve irritation,” Redick said, and so it wasn’t a total surprise that James was dealing with a sciatica problem.
Redick said James was on the field “every day” doing individual work. He just hasn’t been able to practice with his teammates.
Redick was asked how James’ inability to participate in practice affected his game planning for practice and the start of the season, knowing he wouldn’t be available for some time.
» No, no effect on practice planning,” Redick said. “And we haven’t game planned yet, so no effect.”
Redick hadn’t put too much emphasis on his starting lineup during training camp and preseason games.
But with James turning 41 in December, entering his 23rd season and dealing with an injury in training camp, Redick was asked if he could plan to have one lineup with James starting and one with him out.
“Potentially. Yeah,” he said. “Something that’s definitely been on my mind the last few days. Yeah… You hope he comes back soon. In other words, these things can be tricky. So I don’t think it’s…
“We knew that before camp, so it hasn’t changed anything in how we want to practice or what our philosophy is with preseason games. We don’t know who will be, what the starting lineup will be. That’s the reality until he returns. We’ll have to figure that out.”
