Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are sitting out with right ankle sprains when the Lakers host the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night in Los Angeles’ sixth game in eight days.
The Lakers announced the decision to rest Doncic and Reaves alongside fellow injured starters LeBron James and Rui Hachimura about six hours before tipoff against the Bucks.
The Lakers also declared key rotation players Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle) and Jarred Vanderbilt (right groin strain) to be doubtful to play against Milwaukee. That means Los Angeles will be without its top four scorers and could be without five of the top six when the Bucks visit.
Los Angeles is in a brutal stretch of its schedule with 20 games in a five-week span. The Lakers have won three straight home games over the previous four days, but they also have six more games in the final 10 days of March after they host Milwaukee.
Doncic scored 31 points and Reaves had 22 in the Lakers’ victory over Denver on Wednesday night.
Los Angeles has won nine consecutive home games since Feb. 19 and 16 of 17 home games overall.
Doncic has played through his persistent ankle injury, but he also sat out last Friday in Denver to rest the problem. Reaves hadn’t missed a game since March 4 despite his own nagging ankle injury.
Los Angeles’ already crowded schedule this month is even worse because the Lakers beat San Antonio on Monday in a game rescheduled from January because of the wildfires that devastated parts of Southern California. That rescheduling meant the Lakers are playing five home games in a seven-day span this week before starting a road trip in Orlando on Monday.
