The Lakers received positive injury news following multiple scares in Wednesday’s 123-112 win over the Bucks.
Lakers coach JJ Redick said Austin Reaves suffered a left heel bruise in the third quarter of that game and is listed as day-to-day ahead of Sunday’s contest against the Suns.
The Lakers’ medical staff and Reaves jointly determined that he didn’t need further imaging after seeing how he felt Thursday morning. Reaves had X-rays Wednesday evening and they came back clean.
When asked if Reaves’ injury was minor, Redick didn’t hesitate.
“I would assume a day-to-day injury is minor, yeah,” Redick said.
As for Luka Doncic, who tweaked his right ankle in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s game?
“Luka is fine,” Redick said. “I think the expectation would be he’s available.”
Collin Sexton is also listed as day-to-day after receiving multiple stitches to close a deep cut over his right eye after he and Bucks guard Ryan Rollins bumped heads in the fourth quarter.
Redick said a concussion was ruled out for Sexton.
Meanwhile, Quentin Grimes, who missed the Lakers’ last two games because of a sprained right pinkie, participated in the live portion of the “stay ready game” at Friday’s practice.
Grimes, who had his pinkie taped, said the swelling has gone down and his finger is “basically back to normal.”
“I definitely expect to play, for sure,” Grimes said of Sunday.
It’s all positive news for the Lakers, who have won seven straight games and have the best record in the league at 11-2.
While Doncic spoke after Wednesday’s game saying his ankle was “painful a little bit but I’ll be fine,” there was significantly more worry around Reaves, who did not speak to the media after the Lakers’ win and was expected to receive more imaging upon the team’s return to Los Angeles — until it was deemed unnecessary.
When Redick was asked if Doncic advised Reaves about the heel injury that he suffered in 2024, the coach said he wasn’t sure.
“I know those guys text 47 times a day, so maybe there’s a chance,” Redick said. “Austin said he woke up yesterday at 7 a.m. and he had four texts from Luka, so maybe one of those was the heel text. I don’t know.”
Redick was sure about one thing, though.
Following a brutal stretch of three road games in four days, including a back-to-back, the Lakers had a much-needed three days to regroup before playing the Suns.
Redick and his staff spent the last three days auditing the Lakers, who are the top-rated team in the league on offense but are No. 18 on defense.
His analytics team prepared a 21-page presentation.
“We know we want to be a top-10 defense,” Redick said. “We know we are not going to be able to do that unless we become better than a bottom-10 transition team and better than a bottom 10-defensive rebounding team.”