At some point during the Lakers’ preseason, Luka Doncic will play in a game.
The question is when.
Even after being a full participant in practice Saturday, Lakers coach JJ Redick said that Doncic was “TBD” (to be determined) 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 that Marcus Smart will see action in his first preseason game of the season.
The Lakers will play six preseason games, three of them coming after the game against the Warriors.
After practice, Doncic was asked when he would play.
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “We got to talk about it — JJ and my team. So, I don’t know yet. But I’m probably going to end up playing two games of the preseason.”
When the regular season starts Oct. 21 at home against the Warriors, Doncic will not have running mate LeBron James beside him.
James was diagnosed with sciatica nerve issue on his right side, the Lakers announced to the media Thursday, saying that he’ll 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 has to be unsettling 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 needs to be next man up. We got a group of guys that have been practicing and hopefully LeBron can join us as soon as possible. We are going to obviously need him. But our mentality has got 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 view 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 get a win.”
James hasn’t practiced at all, but Doncic said that hasn’t stopped the two of them from figuring out the team can still function at a high level.
“It’s not everything about on the court. That’s what I’ve been saying,” Doncic said. “It’s about chemistry off the court, too. So, obviously, now it’s a little more off the court, but while we watched practices this week, we talked a lot about it.”
Lakers keep moving ahead without James
They had known over the summer that James had been dealing with “the nerve irritation,” Redick said, and so it wasn’t a total surprise James is going to be out with a sciatica issue.
Redick said James has been on the court “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 going into the season knowing that he won’t be available for a while.
” No, no effect on practice planning,” Redick said. “And we haven’t game-planned yet, so, no effect.”
Redick had not put too much emphasis on his starting lineup during training camp and during the preseason games.
But with James turning 41 in December, entering his 23rd season and being injured in training camp, Redick was asked if he could foresee having a lineup with James starting and another with him out.
“Potentially. Yeah,” he said. “Something that certainly has crossed my mind in the last couple days. Yeah…You hope that he’s back soon. That’s, those things are, those things can be tricky. So it, I don’t think it’s …
“We knew this going into camp, so it wasn’t like it’s changed anything for how we want to practice or what our philosophies are with the preseason games. It is unclear who’s gonna be, what the starting lineup is gonna be. That’s the reality until he is back. We’ll have to figure that out.”
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