Draymond GreenForward, Golden State Warriors

Draymond Green on Luka Doncic Injury: "This Sucks for Austin Reaves" & Lakers Title Hopes

5 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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In this commentary, Draymond Green argues that Luka Dončić's injury makes it difficult to evaluate the Dallas Mavericks' playoff prospects, which in turn creates uncertainty for assessing the future of other teams, especially the Los Angeles Lakers. He highlights how the injury could affect Austin Reaves' upcoming contract payday and LeBron James' free‑agency timeline, noting that a poor Mavericks playoff showing would diminish the relevance of those evaluations. Green predicts the Lakers may face a 4‑ or 5‑game series against the Houston Rockets, with defensive matchups shifting to players like Iman Thompson, Tyre Easton, Reece Sheppard, or Jabari Smith, and warns that these cascading effects pose a significant problem for the Lakers' title hopes.

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I don't know that their team can survive headed into the playoffs without Luka Dončić. You need to know how this team performs in the playoffs in order to have an accurate read on what your future should be. And what I mean by that is you have Austin Reeves due up for a big-time payday. You have LeBron James due up for a free agency. If you don't get the proper opportunity to see this team in the playoffs, how do you properly judge what the future of this team should look like? This team can win 60 regular season games and go 60-22. If they fizzle out and bomb in the playoffs, Ultimately, it's all for nothing. You look at Austin Reeves, and this really sucks for Austin Reeves because the Lakers will probably end up in the 4 or 5 game. They'll probably end up facing the Houston Rockets. Iman Thompson. That's who will be guarding Austin Reeves. As opposed to Tyre Easton, maybe Reece Sheppard, maybe Jabari Smith. It's a completely different thing. And so if you're Austin Reeves and you going to these playoffs and you got Iman Thompson and it don't go well, then what does that look like for you? This injury could have a large domino effect. This isn't shaping up well for the Los Angeles Lakers. This is a big, big, big problem.