Los Angeles Lakers stars Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are expected to miss the entire first round of the playoffs ... but then again, neither player has been entirely ruled out.
ESPN's Tim MacMahon suggested something during Monday's Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective podcast that will have Lakers fans perking up and Houston Rockets fans sweating. MacMahon didn't rule out that Doncic and/or Reaves could be "rushed back" during the first round against the Rockets if the series goes to six or seven games.
"Maybe if they get to a Game 6 do-or-die thing, one or both rush back," MacMahon speculated. Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst didn't shoot down the theory, and how could they? It's still a guessing game at this point as to when Luka and AR will return. The Lakers probably aren't sure, and more interestingly, the Rockets don't know, either.
Luka/Reaves uncertainty creates huge mental distraction for Rockets
In a sense, the Lakers are playing with house money in this first-round series. While they do have homecourt advantage, no one would be shocked to see LA lose this matchup. LeBron James is going to put forth a heroic effort, but a 41-year-old LeBron has his limitations. The Lakers will need to play nearly flawless basketball and keep these games close until the final minutes to have a chance in this series. It's going to be an uphill battle.
On the other side of the coin, the Rockets have their own challenges entering this series, particularly mentally. It's never a good thing to not completely know who your opponent is, and that's sort of the situation that Ime Udoka's club is in. With Luka and Reaves not completely ruled out from the entire series, Houston is forced to prepare for their possible return later in the series, which presents all sorts of distractions during the initial games.
That's not even taking into account how different a gameplan Udoka has to draw up for a Lakers team not featuring Luka and Reaves versus a fully-healthy LA. In essence, the Rockets must be prepared to face two entirely different teams in the span of a single series.
The Rockets don't have as simple a task ahead of them as the Lakers
LeBron and Co. have no choice but to forge ahead with the assumption that Luka and AR aren't coming back anytime in the first round. LA's task is simple and clear: Rally around LeBron, shoot a barrage of open threes, defend like madmen, and as aforementioned, push these games into crunch-time and hope that the Rockets falter in the clutch, as they have all season long.
If the Lakers can win the mental battle in this series, their margin for error will have expanded slightly. And a team with LeBron and Marcus Smart leading the charge is certainly up to that task. Kevin Durant? Not as much.
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