The Los Angeles Lakers released their injury report for Thursday night’s game against the New York Knicks and Austin Reaves (right calf strain), Luka Doncic (right knee contusion) and LeBron James (left foot injury management) are probable while Jordan Goodwin (right ankle sprain) is questionable.
Additionally, Markieff Morris (illness), Rui Hachimura (left patella tendinopathy) and Maxi Kleber (right foot surgery recovery) remain out.
The Lakers have been playing shorthanded in their last few games, but it hasn’t mattered as they keep on winning. They head into Thursday’s game against the Knicks with seven straight victories to their name, taking over the second seed in the Western Conference. This recent stretch of stellar play essentially started against the Knicks in New York a month ago on the night they traded for Doncic.
The Knicks still present a tough challenge for the Lakers to close out their homestand, although JJ Redick’s team is focused on themselves regardless, and they are hoping to get healthy for the final stretch of the regular season.
Reaves has now missed the last two games after suffering a calf injury against the L.A. Clippers last Friday. While it wasn’t a serious injury, the Lakers were being cautious to ensure he is 100% healthy whenever he returns and it doesn’t linger. It appears that will be on Thursday, which would be a huge boost for the Lakers.
Goodwin, who sprained his ankle in the same game Reaves went out, appears to have a chance of playing as well, which means he is at least making progress after being ruled out of the last two games.
Others have stepped up in their absence and the Lakers will need that to continue being the case if Goodwin is out against the Knicks in addition to Rui Hachimura. Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt, Dalton Knecht and Shake Milton have all picked up the slack during this win streak for L.A., which has been great to see around the team’s star duo of Doncic and James.
Lakers star LeBron James named Western Conference Player of the Month
The one constant for the Lakers during their recent stretch of wins has been the play of LeBron James, who remains one of the best players in the league at the age of 40.
In fact, James was so great in February that he took home Western Conference Player of the Month honors. It was an NBA-record 41st monthly award for James.
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