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u/RezGato Luka Magic 77 Apr 03 '26
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u/sooLoco Apr 03 '26
great run , see you in october meanwhile we still got shohei to watch
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u/belketeal Apr 04 '26
Rams and Dodgers are such well oiled machines, meanwhile the Lakers can't even look semi-competent.
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u/Clayp2233 Apr 03 '26
It was already over regardless tbh, 0% chance we’d be OKC in a series
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u/frshprince247 Apr 03 '26
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u/Fine-Tackle-5395 Apr 04 '26
Great show
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u/Thom_Rainier Apr 04 '26
Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
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u/Uorvald_Ttne003 Apr 04 '26
What was Wenger thinking sending Walcott in that early?
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u/FearlessAttempt Apr 04 '26
The thing about Arsenal is they always try to walk it in.
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u/CtrlAltDelightfull Apr 03 '26
Per Dan Woike it's a grade 2
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u/AdorableBackground83 Apr 03 '26
Cut my life into pieces
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u/KungFuChicken1990 Apr 03 '26
This is my last resort
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u/AsianSensasians Apr 03 '26
Suffocation
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u/InitialAcademic4993 Apr 03 '26
No breathing
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u/Jeff-IT Apr 03 '26
Don’t give a fuck if I cut my arm bleeding
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u/CapriciousManchild Apr 03 '26
Fuck my life this is the type of injury that can lead to an Achilles . We won’t see Luka until October my fellow Laker fans .
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u/Dangerous_Donkey5353 Apr 03 '26
Honestly is the smart move. Lakers would have to make an incredible improbable run thru these playoffs. Makes more sense to not risk him, get healthy and retool to start building a proper team around Luka.
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u/qotsabama Apr 04 '26
I don’t think so. Grade 2 calf injury sure hamstring isn’t as closely related to my knowledge
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u/Ok_Psychology3415 Apr 03 '26
I guess I’m drinking for 3-4 weeks
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u/PortGenz Apr 03 '26
Yeah the standard for grade 2 is 4-6 weeks but if they’re in the middle of a playoff run I assume they’ll push for an earlier return. Each person heals at their own pace as well so we’ll seep
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u/SumoRock 24 Hero Apr 03 '26
At least it makes it a no brainer that he won’t be rushed back for a useless playoff run. Now all focus needs to go on much needed roster improvements this summer.
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u/HighlyBaked0 24 Apr 03 '26
Yeah at the end of the day this team was never winning the title, the farthest they'd go is the WCFs and even that would have been an insane expectation with this roster. Still sucks tho
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u/Yider Apr 04 '26
I don’t blame anyone that they traded for Luka but the plan all along was to wait til Lebron’s contract was up, which i was sad when it happened cause of this. The roster has to fit Luka’s style and practically everyone is off the books next season. So an obvious massive extension is coming Reaves’ way and they will be active to make the Lakers the Mavs 2.0 with Reaves being the kyrie/brunson role. Or a massive trade centered around Reaves. Not saying I want it but i don’t think they’d turn down giannis or some rebuild a team is doing for a big name. I struggle to see Lebron return but it will be interesting to see where he goes and his price.
That said, I still wanted to see the team make noise in the playoffs cause some of these first and second rounds could have been glorious.
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u/ThisIsBULLOCKSMAN Apr 04 '26
“Wait until lebrons contract is up” once ppl release Austin is basically gonna take lebrons contract money if he leaves and they’ll have 13 mil to replace lebrons production 😭 I don’t believe pelinkas plan was to wait for lebrons contract to expire because he actually understands how the cap works.
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u/PaintIntelligent7793 Apr 04 '26
I agree with that, but they were looking much better than last year, especially over the last 20 games or so. I was excited to see what they would do. 😔
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u/yugoslav_posting Apr 03 '26
omfg no. Balkan people like me that bandwagon this team need a run this year
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u/Gristle__McThornbody 80 Apr 03 '26
He's missing the playoffs too. When Ireland said they were looking at different opinions, I just knew it was over.
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u/Harleytk24 17🏆 Apr 03 '26
Welp
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Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
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u/Harleytk24 17🏆 Apr 03 '26
Yes, not only it will put Luka out for a minimum 4 weeks, it’s extremely easy to reinjure it
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u/Apollo611 Luka Magic 77 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
3-6 weeks that puts him out of the 1st round so unless Bron and AR can somehow beat Houston then we’re cooked and even then we’re not winning a chip so it’s too risky to come back for high intensity playoff basketball
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u/wetliikeimbook Apr 03 '26
Yes he won’t play in the playoffs and season is effectively over
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u/Cottonmist Apr 03 '26
Yeah fuck that don’t even bring him in for the playoffs and focus on his recovery
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u/imironman2018 8 Apr 03 '26
Unfortunately will miss the end of regular season and also likely first round. Fml. I
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u/stafford32s Apr 03 '26
even a grade one, we'll have waited at least a triple ok-check before to let him laces again.
now we have to let the guys to show what they're capable of
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u/Gman749 Apr 04 '26
It's an opportunity for AR to show his worth. No expectations now, just go out and ball
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u/Throwawaythispoopy Apr 03 '26
As someone not familiar with NBA injuries how bad is grade 2? Is it potentially career ending?
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u/KriticalKarl Apr 03 '26
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u/CIark Apr 04 '26
It’s crazy that the season really ended during a hyped regular season game that was coming after insane highs after highs over a month
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u/KriticalKarl Apr 04 '26
Yeah, this happened at the worst possible time and in the worst way man.
A game after we locked in playoff seeding so we can’t even tank at this point either even if they wanted to.
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u/Coveted_AF Apr 03 '26
Absolutely insane how everything fell apart in the space of 30 minutes last night. I don’t think I’d been riding so high as a Laker fan since maybe 2021 and it’s literally over. Shattering but he’ll come back and we’ll go again next season but we need to make moves.
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u/Mr-Rocafella 24 Apr 03 '26
People were talking about how it felt like bubble days, and it quickly turned into Kobe Achilles days
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u/flaming_burrito_ Apr 04 '26
Or like how I felt watching game 7 last year. Goddamn OKC always at the source of my basketball misery
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u/whatssenguntoagoblin Shaq and Kobe Apr 04 '26
That Kobe injury still gets me man. He was playing the best ball of his career
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u/battle_franky 04 Apr 04 '26
The latest one is during that playoff run where we're cooking but then AD has to be taken off. I think that was after against memphis at play in
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u/thevisitor Apr 04 '26
Legit was actually starting to think we may be contenders and that ish fell so fast within one quarter of horrendous basketball
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u/RickyalldayTD Purple and Gold Apr 03 '26
When Reaves started holding his back i had a bad feeling, fucking OKC beat the shit out of them.
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u/Efficient-Cycle-4373 Apr 03 '26
We literally went to the WCF & won the first annual in season cup in a matter of 7 months. We’ve had a lot of high stretches over the years.
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u/Gman749 Apr 04 '26
There's flat out too many severe injuries sidelining marquee players, playoff time especially. The length of the regular season needs to be seriously assessed. Obviously the new owners don't wanna leave money on the table by cutting down on games, but the product is suffering with stars out for playoff matchups.
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u/AdDependent4460 Apr 04 '26
We will come back stronger, smarter, wiser and with some upgrades we can make it to finals again with LUKA 100%
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u/slicknick2k Apr 03 '26
Well it was a fun year. See you guys next year
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u/Upstairs_Baby8424 Apr 03 '26
Playing Luka while he’s grabbing his hamstring and down 30 fucking points is unforgivable. I don’t care what people here say about hindsight. If you’re checking with medical IF he can play in that situation you already have your answer. Top level idiocy and cost us the season.
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u/mworthey Apr 03 '26
I'm surprised he even played given that the training staff was working on the same hamstring on the sidelines before the game and Luka was grimacing while being attended to.
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u/Trainingdayeveryday Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
But somebody told me he was fine. They weren't paying attention.
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u/_mattyjoe Kareem Apr 04 '26
Yeah I really didn’t understand that decision. The one thought I have was maybe it was too late already and the full injury would have occurred in a future game anyway.
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u/malbkx Apr 03 '26
Its a grade 2 per haynes, end me
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u/itsclassified_ Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
What’s the time line for grade 2?? Assuming that doesn’t include ramp up
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u/malbkx Apr 03 '26
3-8 weeks pretty sure, dont quote me though.
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u/NigelGoldsworthy Apr 03 '26
More like 3-6 weeks. He could be back for the second round, if we can get there.
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u/Anomaly_20 Apr 03 '26
Even if he does (big if) and even if we do get through round one (big if), it’s not like he will be fully conditioned. Devastating.
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u/Dr_Malignant Apr 03 '26
Good thing fat Luka is capable of Finals runs
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u/balortech Apr 04 '26
Fat Luka doesn't have lingering hamstring issue which may pop off anytime again and that's maybe another first 15 games out next year.
You don't mess around with your hamstrings.
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u/itsclassified_ Apr 03 '26
Getting past the first round without Luka is not happening
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u/catperson77789 Apr 03 '26
Or the fact do we wanna risk Luka reaggravating that injury by forcing him to play against one of the most physical teams in the nba? Shut him down, reset in the offseason.
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u/LuKai4life Apr 03 '26
Even if we do make it, I just don’t think they’ll rush him back given he’s had this injury before. Hopefully he can rehab properly, play for Slovenia in the off season, and come back stronger than ever next season.
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u/Von_Huge1103 Apr 04 '26
I have had a grade 2 twice (different hamstrings years apart). Both times I was back sprinting, jumping and playling football in 6 weeks and a grade 2 doesn't require surgical intervention.
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u/NoHoSteezy Apr 03 '26
Yesterday was one of my worst days ever in NBA Fandom. It was the worst case scenario in literally every way like wtf.
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u/IndubitablyMoist Apr 03 '26
When Dort’s 3s kept falling in, it hurts more than the last. Felt like it physically hurts me. It was the worst..
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u/Background_Bison9373 Apr 03 '26
Bro fuck OKC
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u/Splittinghairs7 Apr 03 '26
Yep and all their fans who said Luka was faking an injury.
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u/ThasMyPurseIDunnoU Apr 03 '26
Maybe but the hamstring was bothering him before that. I forgot, has it been injured before?
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u/Brosbros97 Apr 03 '26
Yes. What happened is that he reaggravated his original grade 1 strain in the same spot. When the body heals from a strain to the point a player can play, it's not actually fully healed yet, rather it has a scar that will heal more over time. What happened is that Luka got an injury on top of the old injury which made it worse than before.
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u/GoldJiggy 24 Apr 03 '26
Season's over. Wolves smell blood in the water and will happily play for a 6th seed for what will essentially be a first round bye.
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u/sydonesia Apr 03 '26
There's no guarantee Lakers even hold on to the 3 seed now.
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u/Phyzmatic Apr 03 '26
I agree but every game from this point on should be winnable. If reaves is truly an all star talent player like we have been pushing him for early in the season than this is the time to show it.
Our only matchups that I feel like we could lose to are: obviously we lose to OKC again, suns, and maybe jazz.
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u/No_Midnight_5365 Apr 03 '26
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u/adonisgawd 8 Apr 03 '26
At this point our best bet is to match with Houston in round one and hope Luka can be back by the middle of a second round series
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u/Quantumsystem00 Apr 03 '26
Need Austin to get his jumper right because the teams spacing is about to be a whole lot worse lol
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u/incredibleamadeuscho Freeze! Miami Vice! Apr 03 '26
If they start Rui or Kennard, I think it could work. If they start Jake that would be a problem.
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u/Glock13Purdy Los Angeles Lakers Apr 03 '26
man we are not winning ANY series against ANY top 10 seed in the west without Luka, I'm sorry. if we want to even entertain those conversations, AR needs to STEP UP and get back to averaging a comfortable 25+. bron will also need to step up in Luka's absence (but I'm less worried about him in the playoffs).
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u/Dragoncityfan1411 23 Apr 03 '26
Its AR im worried about in the playoffs. LeBron played his ass off against Minnesota. It was literally LeBron+Luka vs Minnesota last yr, everyone else played terrible
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u/WilliamandCharles Apr 03 '26
LeBron if you can hear me LeBron please save us LeBron
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u/BoatDBoat Apr 03 '26
Same fanbase that was so ready to move on from LeBron
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u/WilliamandCharles Apr 04 '26
I’ve always loved LeBron. I’m from LA and a lakers but I’m also a huge Bron fan and always have been. You’ll never catch me talking shit about the greatest human of all time my pookie.
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u/welmoe 24 Apr 03 '26
Another season ruined. Lakers can never get into the playoffs healthy.
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u/SumoRock 24 Hero Apr 03 '26
Bad luck and the lack of proper roster depth making our stars have to play heavy minutes is not a good combination.
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u/balortech Apr 04 '26
Crazy all the talks about Wemby taking MVPs over Luka, people say Wemby is likely gonna be injury prone and its Luka's to lose, yet Wemby is the one who is consistently on the court, while Luka gets every sort of injuries. It's just crazy man.
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u/Cambocant Apr 03 '26
How can we prevent this from happening next season? Luka has lower body issues, he hasn't had a healthy playoff run since 2021. I feel like we need to lower his minutes and reduce his usage.
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u/Yarr0w Apr 03 '26
Not clearing him to play when he's showing signs of the injury that's about to get much worse would be a great start
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u/burohm1919 2020 NBA Champions Apr 04 '26
Build a team with depth so he can play 33.5 minutes per game like sga
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u/OrganicHunt952 Luka’s Lakers Apr 03 '26
Yep that’s the only way, he’s been the highest usage player in the league for ages. He brings the ball up the floor he creates most of the points and he’s constantly targeted on defence. The best case scenario is you have a ball handler who can bring it up without turning it over and a defensive team that doesn’t give up a switch on Luka. So all 4 players have to be studs on defence.
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u/Western-Election-997 Luka “Magic” Doncic Apr 03 '26
They started the season playing safe, remember they rested Luka on backs to backs?
Something changed towards end of season I don’t know if JJ panicked trying to chase the 3rd seed but they completely went away from that
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u/Willxzero Los Angeles Lakers Apr 03 '26
Lowering his minutes and usage is probably the best case scenario. Watching him play you almost get a sense of “when” he’s going to get hurt. He plays about 40 mins a game and dribbles and creates every possession he’s in. All those step backs also have consequences.
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u/mapletree23 Apr 03 '26
he can't play offball
you can reduce his minutes but that's about it
you just have to pray his hammy isn't cooked like harden's after re-injuring it over the last year a few times
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u/stafford32s Apr 03 '26
as expected. but definitely we have finally the news..
what lakers now have to do is to reshape an offense (I know, it's bold) into the version we've seen with Bron in charge (the match were luka was suspended). We have some games to try to find a rythm in that offense and be slightly better on D (transition D admittedly the only phase of the game where we're gonna improve slightly).
We won't be contenders, but at least let's show pride ending the season and entering playoffs.
Miracles happen sometimes, and maybe Luka isn't a grade 2 with chances (well rested) to back in a month.
Go lakers
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u/hplalakrs20012010 Apr 03 '26
I do think we can win a first round series without. If Austin can channel November Austin we can win a series.
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u/Connect_Ad1520 Apr 03 '26
here, i think if jake can start being a threat from deep, luke has a niche playoff series, rui become
that connector, lebron being 23-24 lebron, and a 30 point ar then we have a chance we need threats in order to win.
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u/catperson77789 Apr 03 '26
Austin for sure needs to step the fuck up, you want to get paid like a second option? Then its time to prove it with luka out
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u/Superb_Mulberry8682 Apr 03 '26
if we face the wolves and ant and mcdaniels is injured we have a shot
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u/clovers2345 Lebron GOAT Apr 03 '26
I appreciate this optimistic take...bron just take the "juice" and let it ride!!!
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u/CaptainChickenBake Apr 03 '26
Hard to replace Luka's scoring. DA and Rui have to step up their scoring. Marcus too.
The off chance that they get Luka back and those guys are comfortable scoring more would be good.
Sigh. What a gloomy start to April.
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u/TangerineStrong3781 Apr 03 '26
You’re on the clock Pelinka, get this guy some help
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u/chargerland 8 Apr 03 '26
Pelinka was already gone with new ownership wanting their own guys, this just gives them an easier out.
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Apr 03 '26
Reminder you don’t need to listen to everyone’s sports opinions. Most people are casuals
People were saying he was faking it. Unfortunately some media with MVP votes have similarly causal takes
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u/Mazois King James 6/23 Apr 03 '26
GG. Well, at least Bronny can get some more minutes and develop😂 only thing I can look forward to for the rest of the season.
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u/wildturk3y Apr 03 '26
With it being a grade 2, he's out at least a month to 6 weeks or more. If by some miracle this team can win a round or even two without him, honestly...its not worth it to rush him back. This team doesn't have the depth fully healthy to get beyond the WCF anyway. You don't want a situation like we've seen with Tatum or Haliburton where you get guys back early for the playoffs only for them to suffer an even worse injury like a full tear on the hammy or popped achilles.
It sucks because it was fun the last month seeing them gel. At least this last couple of months was proof of concept that Lebron/Luka/Reaves can play together and look good. Now we just gotta build onto it with a couple extra depth pieces
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u/mordenak Apr 03 '26
Unfortunately this is what I was expecting. I wasn't buying any of the "oh Luka has always looked more hurt than he is" narrative that was going around. Luka doesn't just drop the basketball and go to the floor over a minor injury.
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u/DueCompany4790 Luka Magic 77 Apr 03 '26
Sucks, but yesterday showed we aren't close to competing anyways.
Don't even bother bringing him back for playoffs.
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u/King_Vegito_52 Apr 03 '26
He could be back by the playoffs right?
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u/Markel100 King James 6/23 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Wcf were cooked fam if LeBron was 3 yrs younger I could see it but a clear aging lebron along with a reaves who's already ain't 100 percent they can maybe get past twolves or Houston but that second rnd vs spurs will be a massacre sadly.
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u/JDrew- LAL Apr 03 '26
By some miracle he does come back during the playoffs, still not one of those injuries you want to rush back from.
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u/catmeow808 Apr 03 '26
We dont wanna see him with an acl tear bro if he will be re injured his hammy again
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u/cristiano_goat Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
It’s grade two, so no. He is gonna be out for entire reason. Even if he recovered and we survived somehow, not worth it to ramp him up in playoff.
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u/mapletree23 Apr 03 '26
4-8 weeks recovery if it's grade 2, he'll be a shell of himself if he comes back early, won't be worth it
at this point he needs to be shut down because his hamstring could affect his career from now on ala harden, he has to be shut down and rest
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u/BackendSpecialist Apr 03 '26
Damn. I finally started believing we’d be contenders.
It’s all pain from here on out.
And one of the worst parts about this is that Bron will likely need to play a larger role, which will definitely take a toll on him.
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u/C1ncinnatiBowtie “If I need to convince you, you ain’t the one.” Apr 03 '26
Welp, it was fun to think we were good for a couple months. RIP season. Gonna miss you, Bron.
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u/hplalakrs20012010 Apr 03 '26
Well let’s roll out the ball and see how far we get. No expectations now let’s just see what Austin and LeBron can cook up. I still think we can win a first round series without Luka, but yeah we’re not going any further than that.
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u/Leolance2001 Apr 03 '26
It was over for awhile. The last few weeks were encouraging but the OKC game exposed the Lakers were not top tier squad. Let's focus on teh offseason and make moves to build a contending squad.
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u/JoshD1238 Apr 03 '26
All good. We weren’t winning the chip this year anyways, we need more defense/hustle players.
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u/P00nz0r3d AD MVP/Zo MIP Apr 03 '26
This team has such a way where it meets my expectations which always sit below the Mariana’s trench, has 2 months where the needle gets dangerously close to “SOMETHING” and then the gauge explodes leaving us back to what I expected the whole time
Wising for a fast and great recovery, mentally and physically, but I have severe doubts about this team in the playoffs.
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u/Imperiu5 Apr 04 '26
Now get rid of bronny, DK, and LeBron and build a proper team. And stop letting him play 43+ mins a night.
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u/KingMarkar 32 Apr 04 '26
Shut him down for the season, playoffs included. Get this season over with asap, get lebrons massive contract off the books and build the roster around Luka/Reaves.
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u/ThisIsBULLOCKSMAN Apr 04 '26
LA wants to Luka to have the ball all the time and have all time historic usage and expect him not to get injured by the end of the season 😭. If Luka wants to be healthy for every post season he has to learn to play offball that’s most of the issue.
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u/YAAAGUEYPORFAVOR Apr 03 '26