The Los Angeles Lakers ended their regular season on a winning note, blowing out the Utah Jazz 131-107 at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday. The win meant the Lakers finished with a respectable 53-29 record, and they are entering the playoffs as the fourth seed in the Western Conference.
The Lakers will take on the 52-30 Houston Rockets in the first round, and they would have been the favorites in this matchup just a few weeks ago. They are heavy underdogs now, though, thanks to Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves being sidelined with injuries.
The Lakers will be heavily reliant on LeBron James in their absence, and the likes of Rui Hachimura will have to step up as well if they are to pull off the upset. Hachimura spoke about heading into this Rockets series without Doncic and James in his postgame press conference.
“Especially Luka and AR is out, it’s a different game a little bit,” Hachimura said, via Lakers Nation. “But I think we kind of understand our roles. Each individual have different things they need to do, but I think at the end of the day we know what our goal is and we fight through this past three, four games. And we got what we wanted, so we’ve got to keep rolling.”
Doncic and Reaves both went down in the Lakers’ 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on April 2. The former has a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, while the latter has a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury.
The average recovery time in Doncic’s case is about four to six weeks, but he is undergoing treatment in Europe to expedite his return. We might see him in the first round against the Rockets, but Reaves almost certainly won’t take part. He has been ruled out for four to six weeks.
Losing your two leading scorers this close to the playoffs is a hammer blow. The Lakers would lose their first two games after Doncic and Reaves got injured, but have won three in a row since. Hachimura had 22 points (8-12 FG), 10 rebounds, and one steal in the win over the Jazz, and the Lakers will hope to see more of the same against the Rockets.
Deandre Ayton also had 22 points (10-14 FG), 10 rebounds, one assist, and three blocks against the Jazz. Ayton admitted postgame that the Lakers badly need Reaves and Doncic back, and explained how they have changed as a team without the star duo.
“You just named two guys that was basically half and half of the whole team,” Ayton said, via Spectrum SportsNet. “And to me, I think we’re picking up our level of intensity when it comes to effort. Our effort level is making up for a lot of our mistakes, and we’re taking pride on the defensive end as well to create rhythm on the offensive end.
“So, it’s a total different team now, but we’re sticking to the togetherness part of it to finish off these games,” Ayton added.
Doncic finished the regular season with averages of 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game. The Slovenian won the scoring title, and it’s the second time he has pulled that off in three seasons.
As for Reaves, he put up 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game. That’s close to 60 points a night that the Lakers have lost, and Marcus Smart spoke about where the team spirit is now in his postgame media session.
“A little bit over half, if we had to put a number on it,” Smart said, via The Sporting Tribune. “Just for the simple fact, we lost two of our brothers, right? And we’ve been going to war with those guys, battling. The ups and the downs with them. So it does bring you down, but we understand that opportunity is at play for everybody else to step up, and that is raising guys’ spirits and also our confidence.”
Smart just played his third game here since missing nine in a row with a right ankle contusion. He had five points (1-7 FG), two rebounds, 10 assists, and one steal, and the Lakers will be counting on him to step up against the Rockets.
Game 1 will be held at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET.
