[Charania] Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Dončić is expected to miss the series against the Houston Rockets. Austin Reaves has begun 1-on-1 on-court work but remains out indefinitely.
It’s okay Luka. Luke kennard is here
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjSSaZ4aMAAoAK3.jpg
Luka Nard
Luke Nuke’em
Luka N AR
The white Luka Doncic.
Kennard Dog.
LET HIM OUT OF HIS KENNEL
#WHO LET THE NARD OUT? WHO, WHO, WHO, WHO, WHO?
Luka kennard
Luka Nnard
Drop the extra “N”. It’s cleaner
Which one is the extra one?
What, is this a riddle? The first “one”
It’s the third one clearly
Huh, presumably it’d be the second one because of redundancy.
Let’s get Kennarded in here
It would be hilarious if the lakers led by 40 year old lebron and luke “luka” kennard somehow beat the rockets
It’s a little different with no KD. But it’s funny in its own way if Lebron balls out while KD is out with arthritis or whatever he has.
I still think it’s pretty bad even without KD. Rockets have way more talent.
Yea rocket still should be favorite even without KD.
Totally can see this tonight. Unless they miss 27 more shots again
I also doubt Luka nard is putting up 27 again even tho it’d be hilarious
!remindme 8 hours
Because it will be 28!!!
“Luke Kennard has broken Michael Jordan’s 40 year old playoff scoring record, dropping 70 points on the Rockets en route to a 2-0 Lakers lead in their series with Houston”
Inshallah. Deus Vult. Crossed fingers. 🤞
buddy is doubting lebron + a cold white boi
Please.
Idk I mean 4 of their 5 starters are 23 or younger, and the 5th is Josh Okogie. Plus they don’t really even have a #1 scoring option with KD out, and they have some of the worst spacing in the league even with KD. They have young talent and they’ll probably be a really solid team as time goes on, but right now I wouldn’t say they have “way more talent”.
Maybe it’s just me but I really wouldn’t be surprised to see the Lakers take this series even if Luka and Reaves don’t play a single game.
I mean maybe but besides lebron one of the lakers starting lineup rn would start on most teams
Backitis
Spinal
Leavoiditis
Their lineup on paper even without KD should still be a lot better than Lebron (who himself is a role player at this point) + all role players. Hell, even bronny is getting minutes lol
I think 21 6 and 7 is a bit above “role player”
When Luka and AR are on the court, he defaults as the third option, is what I meant by role player. Of course his stats are still good, it just means that he’s not normally one of the first two options.
I don’t wanna cause a shock but Lebron James knows how to play as a first option
now we’re just being pedantic, no shit he can play as first option, but he’s 41, the whole point is the rockets should still be way better, they have 4 of the top 6 players on the court
Don’t think Sheppard (?) is better than Smart & Ayton
When Luka and AR are on the court, he defaults as the third option, is what I meant by role player.
The ol’ Chris Bosh special, funnily enough.
LeBosh James
Shit dude in no playoff series should Ayton and Haxes not only be getting meaningful minutes, but also making such a significant positive impact on both sides of the court.
It’s not lol they have waaay more talent with Luka and Reeves sidelined, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if they win by 20 tonight. Sengun, Sheppard, and Thompson aren’t going to average like 30% from the field again lol
You named 3 players who are infamous for not being offensive creators for either themself or others
If this happens are the rockets the biggest frauds of the year. I know they got screwed with injuries but losing in the first round of back to back years would be rough
The lakers got even more screwed by injuries lol. If the rockets can’t beat 41 year old Lebron with Sengun, Thompson and Reed all healthy, then that doesn’t bode very well for the future of the team without KD lol.
FTF put it in a good way in that Rockets have 5 of the 6 best players this series, 4 of the 5 best with KD out.
Even with KD gone it’s still a disaster for the Rockets and an indictment on how poorly coached and poorly constructed that roster is
Tbf thats been the story for lebron for like a third of his career.
If KD’s not playing? No, he was already carrying a team demolished by injuries more than he should have had to.
The rockets have multiple top 5 picks and their all star center still playing. Even if KD doesn’t suit up there’s no excuse to lose to this laker team
I agree, but there’s a gap between “they should win” and “they’re frauds”
I disagree. They had some of those key injuries entering the season and chose twice not to address the needs they would have. The team as it is, is reasonably injured and might lose the round, but that’s a front office problem. Like the other guy said, they’re the ones that pulled out of rebuild and decided to go all in, and then didn’t commit to the definition of that. Frauds is on the table. Though I’m still not convinced they’ll actually lose.
Rockets have 3x as many top 5 picks in their lineup as OKC does. And that’s after they traded #2 pick Jalen Green.
They’re missing their floor general PG in FVV, and were only a good regular season team because they had their O-board superweapon in Steven Adams. Now KD is out, and none of their young talent really took big leaps this year, so they look cooked.
Their team is still much better than ours…
Apparently not
Let yourself be a homer during the playoffs, live a little
They objectively have a better team than us but I still think they are dog shit and weak minded enough that we have a realistic chance to win lmao
Now we’re talkin
They chose not to address the pg concern on any level though. This wasn’t an injury that happened in the last month. That’s a front office problem.
Nah, missing KD and FVV is a pretty big deal
If you lose because KD doesn’t play at all this series - no. Your two best players are injured
People keep bringing up rockets losing in first round last year like we lost to some scrubs. That warriors team was really solid, and it was a close 7 game series.
If rockets lose without KD, it will be a bad look but this is not a great team without our number one scorer, point guard and Adams who’s an integral piece. This is still a team that had promise, and it will be a disappointment for sure, but let’s not act like this rockets team represents what this season was supposed to look like.
not really no, their offense is completely cooked without KD, I would favor the Lakers even without Doncic and Reaves
Not only did they have injuries but their offense already looked very rough even with a mostly healthy team against the Warriors last year. Completely inept with no structure
We’re getting too liberal calling people frauds bc who were they tricking? It’s a 4⁄5 matchup if they lose it’s normal. Save the fraud label for, like, the Pistons losing to the Magic or Knicks to the Hawks or something
Because of a random buddy explosion game 7 and an untimely injury from kd?
What about the pistons if they lose again?
If this happens are the rockets the biggest frauds of the year
Probably biggest frauds of the century, if the healthy Rockets lose to LeBron and friends.
“Healthy”
Rockets are not healthy
1 seeds Toronto and Atlanta both got swept by LeBron and friends but at least that was prime Bron. This is nursing home Bron
how many more players do we have to lose
*41 year old
The rockets are not ready..They need Fred VanVleet to make a difference
[deleted]
No chance is crazy in my humble opinion
Lakers were horrible from the line and while they shot well, was a very low volume. Only 19 3s and 66 shots from the field (top 5 lowest by a Lakers team this century and the rest are from the deadball era) Racked up 18 turnovers too and gave up 21 offensive rebounds. In the 3 H2Hs against LA this regular season, they had 12, 15 and 17.
Lakers played great in Game 1 but there are a lot of areas that can be improved on. Don’t see Houston shooting this bad again though but I don’t think there is no chance the Lakers win. We got LeBron James
So, the European super treatment didn’t magically heal his hamstring?
Unfortunately no
I’m always skeptical when someone says there’s some kind of breakthrough medical treatment that billion dollar NBA teams wouldn’t shell out for in America. It’s the same for hair transplants - people act like Turkey is the place you have to go when there’s tons of great doctors in the US who can do them.
People go to Turkey for hair transplants because it’s way cheaper than getting it in any other Western country.
Exactly. People go to Europe for stem cell treatment because it is cheaper and more available.
Also, some European countries have less regulations for these types of treatments. Some of these treatments haven’t been completely approved in America yet.
And not illegal.
Isn’t the point of going to turkey how cheap it is compared to the smt quality here?
A hair transplant in the US is like 18-25k or something crazy. Apparently dudes be paying like 3-5k in Turkey
People go to Turkey for the same reason people go to Mexico to get dental work
The prices are much lower
It’s not that it’s sketchy, it’s that it isn’t FDA approved but it’s allowed in the UK. He got PLP injections, which IS allowed in the US. But first his plasma cells were manipulated. You can’t do that here. It’s not a magic cure but it will help his timeline.
To be honest I think a large part of going back to Europe was moreso for seeing his children.
People go to Turkey for hair transplants for the same reason diabetics cross the border to Mexico for insulin. It’s significantly cheaper, even after you take travel costs into account.
people go overseas for stemcell injections, since its highly regulated and only allowed for FDA approved treatments in the US, mainly due to conservative Christian opposition to stemcells (lol)
Its not a breakthrough, just literally not an allowable procedure in LA or the US
we haven’t even unleashed bronny, had to restrain him to 4 minutes so we can save the super
I daydreamt Bronny hit like three 3s in a row
It’ll never happen because they won’t give him the green light like that just want him to give Smart a rest for a bit
Good. It sucks, but I 100% believe that the right call is accepting this season is lost, and not compromising the future of your young star. Hamstrings are too delicate to risk it on a super long shot
Yea silver lining is maybe he’ll finally heal for once without rushing back into basketball. Iirc he’s played off season ball almost every year as well
Pretty sure he’ll play for the NT regardless.
I agree. Its not like Lakers are tier 1 contenders even if fully healthy.
Yeah, there’s no point in rushing back to beat the Rockets and risk future injury, since the reward for beating them is a 2nd round matchup with the Thunder.
They can absolutely win the series even without both of them
Especially when they have near zero chance against the Thunder or the Spurs. Whereas next year, maybe they can make some more moves.
Luka is 27 and has already shown signs of being injury prone, missing about 16 games a year on average so far. That won’t get better as he ages.
LA can’t really afford to punt on any postseasons tbh. As soon as he’s acceptably healthy, he needs to play.
Rushing a player back is the worst possible idea, especially if they’re supposed to be your keystone for the next 5 years at least. Look at what happened when Hali rushed back, he forfeited the entire next season due to sustaining a worse injury (and we don’t know the long-term impact on his game)
Luka should only come back if he’s fully healthy, “acceptably” healthy just means his leg is a grenade that could go off at any point for the chance to maybe make it to the second round where without Reeves they’re 100% getting bounced by OKC anyway
KD got rushed back and while still effective lost that first step he had
History shows that Luka will rarely, if ever, be “fully healthy” in mid-April for a full playoff run. His knees were bleeding through his leg sleeves during the Mavs Finals run in ‘24 lol.
LA would unironically be better off pulling a Nico and trading him rather than praying that he’ll magically stay perfectly healthy for an entire playoff run.
I absolutely agree that he’s injured too much as is to have sustained success in the playoffs when it comes to championship runs
But whether the Lakers want to go the route of trying to manage him better (which I think is the better option since he’s so talented when healthy) or flipping him for assets, rushing him back and risking a worse injury would hurt either option
0 IQ
Sorry, forgot that the big-brained move is sitting out a healthy Luka in hopes that an older version of himself with more mileage will be healthier somehow.
Genius.
Rushing him back from a hammy injury isn’t a “healthy Luka” bro
It’s a very simple concept and he cannot understand it. Don’t bother
They aren’t contenders if he does come back. If there was ever a postseason to punt, it’s absolutely this one. They haven’t even built an actual team around him when healthy, this was never their true window anyways
Rockets stink anyways if Reaves is back by game 3 Lakers are winning the series
If Durant doesn’t come back I don’t even think the Lakers need Reaves. Without KD the Rockets have a brutal mix of no shooting/floor spacing, inexperience, and no leadership. I mean hell they got beat in the first round by the 7 seed last year despite having a MUCH MUCH better playoff roster than what they’ve got right now.
It’s all good. Bron will unlock his 13th prime with Ime Udoka’s bitch ass on the sidelines.
They have Kennard they’re fine and also this Lebron guy
I’m kind of glad. I want to see if LeBron call pull this off. Its fun to watch him doing this at his age. Hope KD is back to make it even better
Remember how so many okc fans and ppl online and even media members like Stephen a smith said he was faking his injury
i mean, he was limping around in the first half. it was reminiscent of other thunder/lakers games in the past. kobe had a habit of limping or holding his elbow when the thunder were blowing them out. kobe was obviously acting.
the notion of luka faking was reinforced by his presence on the court in the second half. we know now that this was coaching malpractice, but at the time luka was behaving an awful lot like kobe.
it sucks that he was injured, but you should probably focus your ire at the people who let him play injurred in a game that they had zero chance of winning.
The amount of cope you thunder fans inhale is incredible.
Absolutely nothing that you said makes it any better. Actually you somehow make it sound worse trying to explain it.
Kobe has nothing to do with luka. And Luka has nothing to do with past Thunder and laker games and what Kobe was doing lol
whatever. be mad at thunder fans. nevermind that your clownshow of a franchise played their injured superstar in a hopeless game and he’s missing an entire playoff round because of it.
Hmm I said okc fans talking about that one video of the people courtside yelling at him. Said “ppl online” meaning it wasn’t just okc fans. And said media personalities.
Don’t get defensive on behalf of your fanbase lol. Didn’t say it was all thunder fans. But thanks to your response I can include you in who I was talking about
Thankful if so. Rather he doesnt rush back.
it don’t matter. none of this matters
The Rockets won’t matter on judgement day
Someone wanna tell me why my pool is full of hot dog chunks and dirty dishes?
More Luka Nard time.
Us old heads want KD vs Bron anyways.
The funniest outcome is a 4-0 sweep by a 70 year old LeBron, Luke, and LeBronathan Jameson II.
I mean duh. Nobody with an actual brain thought Luka would be back in the first round. Heal up and prepare for round 2 against OKC!
I am sure the rockets with their roster construction, not doing anything at the deadline, and awful hc will still find a way to lose
If kd is back I think the rockets will win this series
Yep this is the right decision. Play with house money and just enjoy the rest of the games. It would be really funny though if they get past Rockets.
If KD does not play (very likely since we know his medical condition with that knee) then the Rockets will be out in the first round.
This reminds me of the Utah series Luka had with Reeves filling the Brunson role.
Without KD lakers should be favorite
He’s going to miss it because Lakers are finishing in 4
Its not like OKC is waiting fresh
I mean it takes a finals team to take out Lebron in the playoffs. Rockets dont stand a chance without KD. Even with KD they aint a finals team so they aint stopping Lebron.
If KD doesn’t return then the lakers take this series. The rockets offense is lost without him and Sengun is not carrying them lol. Lebron and Luke Kennard are enough
OK, but what about KD?
Lebron is just going to do it himself isn’t he
Bron gonna drop 70 next game isn’t he?
LeBron has been here before. Light work.
If the Rockets lose this series I will be laughing so fucking hard, and I absolutely hate the Lakers.
If they win I wonder if they play him against okc
Okay
Age 40 & 41 Lebron having more playoff impact than prime Luka their first two seasons as teammates.
Moses.
Austin Reaves would be dumb to play if he’s not healthy. If he suffers any major injury, Lakers going to lowball him this off-season
Low iq Lakers releasing this info. Most teams would play coy.
Not sure I even want Reaves back. LuKe Nukem is on a warpath right now and bringing Reaves back is going to mess that up only so he can get beat everywhere on the floor like Brunson.
Upvoted because Luke Nukem is pretty good.
Lakers should still easily take this series. They gotta hope the blazers suns can somehow pull off a miracle or at least make the spurs thunder work for a series win by taking them to 6 or 7
Eh….. do you mean the suns and OKC?
Yeah my bad 🫣
That’s the other side of the bracket. Lakers or rockets play winner of okc Phoenix.
Aren’t they playing OKC next
Yeah, Suns gotta pull a miracle
I don’t underestimate any team when it comes to playoffs, but even miracle is understating it here.
OKC is -30000 to win this series, that’s an implied probability of 99.7%.
Just 4 magnet ball games is all I ask Silver 🤞
Lol, for what it’s worth I don’t think the Lakers will survive this series anyway. It’ll be a dogfight but the Rockets will survive one way or the other.
nuh uh
Lakers are dead in the water without AR and Luka. It was a miracle to win game 1 given that KD is out, but as soon as KD is back and playing at a reasonable level, Rockets are gonna win 4 straight.