Lakers’ JJ Redick brings receipts to defend himself for putting Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves back in after initial injuries

The Los Angeles Lakers appeared to be cruising into the playoffs, with the trio of LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and Austin Reaves gelling perfectly as they entered the final few weeks of the regular season. And then the injury bug infected the team.

Less than two weeks before the Lakers were set to begin a potential championship run, both Doncic and Reaves went down with injuries that will keep them out not only the rest of the regular season, but potentially for the postseason as well. To make matters worse, there is a feeling among some fans that head coach JJ Redick put both players at risk since he put them back in a game in which they initially left due to injury.

Redick, though, claims that the team’s medical staff cleared Doncic and Reaves and that neither had signs before the game that they were heading toward an injury.

“As a coach, you go on the information you have,” Redick said, via The Athletic’s Dan Woike. “He was medically cleared. When Austin came back, I asked directly. I thought he was hurt. (I was told), ‘No, he’s medically cleared.’ The group wanted to go for it in the second half. Talked about it at halftime. And I think, for both those guys, the nature of playing heavy minutes, that’s certainly a part of, like any equation when you’re trying to manage workloads. We also rely on the tracking data, and we’re looking at that after every game. … There was nothing leading into that game that would suggest either those guys were ‘running hot,’ as we call it.”

The Lakers, losers of their last two, are currently tied with the Denver Nuggets for third place in the Western Conference. L.A. has four games scheduled for this week.

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