Lakers stars Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves experience late regular season injuries

Luka Doncic (YouTube)

The Los Angeles Lakers are in the postseason at 50 wins and 28 losses. However, at the present time the Lakers are not 100%. According to Robert Marvi of Yahoo! Sports, Lakers star point guard Luka Doncic will be out three to four weeks with a grade two hamstring, and according to the Associated Press, Lakers shooting guard Austin Reaves of Newark, Arkansas will be out four to six weeks with an oblique injury. Both injuries happened in the Lakers’s 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday.

This means that Doncic and Reaves will not be ready for when the Lakers start their first round series in the NBA playoffs. Due to the fact that Doncic has only played 64 games for the Lakers this season, he will be ineligible to win the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. NBA rules state a player must play a minimum of 65 games to be eligible for the NBA awards.

Doncic will be ineligible despite leading the NBA in points per game (33.5), field goals made per game (10.8), and three point shots made per game (four). Doncic also is averaging 8.3 assists per game, 7.7 rebounds per game, and 1.6 steals per game. He has a field goal percentage of .476, three point percentage of .366, and free throw percentage of .780.

Reaves is averaging 23.3 points per game, 5.5 assists per game, 4.7 rebounds per game, and 1.1 steals per game. He has a field goal percentage of .490, three point percentage of .360 and a free throw percentage of .871.

The Lakers will be impacted offensively with the losses of Doncic and Reaves. Both Lakers superstars have scored 50 points in a game this season. Reaves had 51 points in a 127-120 Lakers win over the Sacramento Kings on October 26. Doncic had 51 points in a 142-130 Lakers win over the Chicago Bulls on March 12 and 60 points in a 134-126 Lakers win over the Miami Heat on March 19.