The Lakers are basically throwing their game against the Nuggets on Friday with Luka Dončić out.
UPDATE: The Lakers made it official ahead of the game and downgraded Dorian Finney-Smith, Gabe Vincent and Trey Jemison to out for Friday’s game against the Nuggets.
Lakers announce Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle injury management), Trey Jemison III (illness) and Gabe Vincent (left knee injury management) have been downgraded to OUT https://t.co/gdyHN0IX2y
— Jacob Rude (@JacobRude) March 15, 2025
The Lakers will be as shorthanded as they’ve been all season. Head coach JJ Redick said he would use all players who dress for the game.
JJ Redick says he will play every Laker in uniform tonight. Bronny James is back with the team after a G League stint and that also means Cam Reddish will be in line for minutes for the first time since late January.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 15, 2025
This one will not be fun. Original story follows.
Well, the Lakers have waved the white flag for Friday’s game against the Nuggets and it hasn’t even started.
At the beginning of a brutal stretch of six games in eight days and already dealing with an injury crisis, the Lakers are effectively throwing the game, for all intents and purposes. In their injury report on Friday afternoon, the Lakers listed Luka Dončić as out while Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent are doubtful.
Lakers have released their injury report for tonight’s game against Denver and….yeah pic.twitter.com/sSIaGaybl9
— Jacob Rude (@JacobRude) March 14, 2025
Luka is already joined by Rui Hachimura, Jaxson Hayes and LeBron James as starters who are out. The latter three players already returned to Los Angeles before the end of the road trip.
Under the assumption DFS and Vincent are out, the Lakers would be down to just Jarred Vanderbilt, Dalton Knecht, Cam Reddish, Bronny James, Austin Reaves, Shake Milton, Alex Len and Markieff Morris among full-time roster pieces. The trio of Christian Koloko, Jordan Goodwin and Trey Jemison as two-way players could also play.
No matter the quantity of players available, the quality is going to be drastically worse than Denver’s. In their injury report on Thursday evening, Aaron Gordon was listed as questionable while Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic and Christian Braun are all probable.
The Lakers will be back in action on Sunday in Los Angeles for the second of three consecutive back-to-backs. Clearly, they’re prioritizing that stretch of games over the game in Denver on Friday.
It’s a pretty brutal situation and it means the losing streak will almost certainly increase to four games, but hopefully, it means a healthier team for their upcoming homestand.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.