After a week off from games, the Los Angeles Lakers will return to the court for more preseason action on Sunday night when they host the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena.
The Lakers have their final four preseason games over the next week, which will be their final tuneups before opening up the regular season, again against the Warriors at home, on Oct. 21.
While the Lakers can use as much time on the court together as possible to build chemistry, they have not gotten that so far as Luka Doncic, Marcus Smart, Maxi Kleber and Adou Thiero have all missed the first two preseason games.
The Lakers are choosing to be cautious with Doncic coming off a EuroBasket run with Slovenia this past summer, while the other players have been dealing with minor injuries early in training camp.
After practice on Saturday, Redick revealed that Smart will make his debut on Sunday while Kleber and Thiero remain out.
Meanwhile, Doncic was a full participant at practice and will play in two of the team’s final four preseason games, although it remains to be seen if one will be on Sunday.
“Luka is TBD. Luka was a full participant in today’s practice. He’s TBD, he’s gonna play in two games in preseason… There’s no real update on Maxi, Adou and LeBron. Marcus will play tomorrow,” Redick said.
Doncic himself also confirmed that he plans to play in two preseason games and is not injured, the team was just being cautious after EuroBasket.
“It was because I had the national team and played one month of basketball. It’s a long season ahead, so it was just because of that,” Doncic said.
Lakers center Deandre Ayton recently revealed that he has not yet had the chance to work much with Doncic, so it’s good to see the superstar back on the practice court and planning to play in the preseason.
The same can be said for Smart, who has dealt with Achilles tendinopathy and more recently an illness. He is another veteran player the Lakers want to be cautious with but he recently stated that he plans to play in the preseason at some point, which will be on Sunday.
Lakers star LeBron James to miss Opening Night
Another key Lakers player who won’t be on the floor on Sunday night is LeBron James. He is dealing with sciatica on his right side and it was recently revealed that he will miss Opening Night for the first time in his 23-year career.
James is expected to be re-evaluated in 3-4 weeks, so the Lakers will have to find a way to manage without the superstar for the first handful of regular season games.
That puts even more pressure on Luka Doncic to lead the way, so hopefully he can get some preseason reps at some point before Opening Night.
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