LATEST on Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves - ESPN's Dave McMenamin on Sedano & Kap

about the thing that people are most

interested in. What if any update is

there on Donic and Reeves?

>> They are both around the team. Donic

really is not

close. I I think is is a fair way to to

put it. I mean, even though folks got

excited to see him in practice gear, in

sneakers, on the practice court

yesterday, JJ Reic made it very clear

like, yeah, he was out there rebounding

and passing to his teammates. He wasn't

out there practicing.

>> Reeds,

>> we'll see, right? like we're coming up

on three weeks since the injury for him

that on Thursday it'll be three weeks.

An oblique strain doesn't necessarily

have as high of a risk for reoccurrence

than something like a hamstring.

And if he can get to a place where he

feels good enough to go in a game,

let's say he's out there and he doesn't

feel effective, you can pull him versus

like you're going to go out there and

necessarily make things worse. And so

that's why there's more of a glimmer of

hope for an Austin Reeves to return. But

even still, like four weeks would be a

quick recovery. Um, if you look at game

five, that's 27 days after the injury

occurred against OKC Thunder on April

2nd. So, you know, that that's about

four weeks. Is that a theoretical return

date? Yes. Is it a targeted return date?

I'm not saying that. But I I think when

you start to look at game five, game

six, game seven, and depending on where

the series is at, that's where you can

start to to think of a theoretical range

for Austin Reeves.

>> Okay. So then let's talk about getting

to that game five, six or seven. So the

first game to me, Dave, like you got to

win this game. You're fresh. You're

rested. You're home. You got good vibes

going on. You got to win this game.

Little did the Lakers know, or at least

certainly we didn't know, that Kevin

Durant would not be available on

Saturday. So, the Lakers take care of

business. 10798 get the win. Now, we

come into tonight's game. I'll ask the

first part of it, which is any update on

Durant. And presuming he plays, you

think he's 100?

I don't think he'll be 100%. I do think

he'll play. That's not based on Rocket's

knowledge. that's based on covering

Kevin Durant pretty much the entirety of

the time I've covered the NBA knowing

the competitor that he is and also

speaking to some people in the building

the day of game one who were around him

after he had to make the decision not to

go and how much it it just ate at him

and he was so disappointed. Now, I spoke

to someone on another team yesterday

who, you know, kind of has knowledge of

the type of injury that Kevin Durant's

dealing with based on conversations with

his medical staff. And he said in the

regular season for someone not named

Kevin Durant, this thing could keep a

guy out of lineup two, three weeks. Um,

now Kevin Durant is the number five

all-time leading scorer for a reason. He

is obsessive about the game. He's going

to do everything he can to get out

there. But you're talking about six days

removed from this injury. And again, for

what another player in the NBA, based on

the opinion of of someone I spoke to

yesterday, that could kick them out two,

three weeks. So, you can't imagine he's

going to be 100%. Now, you think the

Rockets will just have the human side of

urgency

going into their preparation. Um, and

that's the challenge would be for the

Lakers is can they put themselves into a

fake place of urgency and make them feel

like they have just as much desperation

as the Rockets do and that's really the

challenge for JJ Reic going into the

game too.

>> Dave, you've been around LeBron every

day for over a decade now. Um, what did

you make of that performance? cuz e even

for him and I know we're running out of

stuff to say at this stage, right? But

like you're you're around him all the

time like what did you make of what you

saw in that game particularly what you

saw in the first quarter?

>> It just had so much command. There was a

clear

leadership aspect to his approach to the

game and there was a precise

game plan execution where hey listen if

you follow me and you do the things JJ

Re coaching staff is asking of us we're

going to be in position to win if you're

going to make sure you're making the

right rotation if you're going to crash

the boards you're going to take care of

the basketball outside of those two or

three minutes at the end of the second

quarter. Uh if you're going to make the

extra pass to the open man, if you're

going to make sure we're balanced when

we get numbers, we get long defensive

rebounds, we get steals, we get

deflections, that we have one guy

running to the corner so that we can

pull the one defender, then we have

court balance to get uh requisite

advantage basketball. Like that's what I

saw out of LeBron James with some flare

for, you know, the moment in the fourth

quarter where he puts up nine of his 19

points when the Rockets were starting to

make a little bit of a push. It was

tremendous. He absolutely set up Luke

Canard for the success that he had. And

what a game for Luke Canard. I mean,

geez, 29 points on 27 points on 13

shots. Uh and I think the belief meter

for this group that had stabilized I

think after it took a major dip after

the OKC loss it is back trending towards

the the direction of oh we we can do

something special here now you can't

rest in your laurels and game one does

not make a series but the approach that

LeBron took that's the type of guy

you're going to want to suit up for and

you're all the guys on that roster are

excited

I'm sure right now thinking about what

it's going to be like to play game two.

>> Dave, talk to us about Luke Canard, but

really more about how JJ was talking to

Luke Canard about Look, it it's one

thing if you take fewer shots and you

have a higher percentage, but we'd

actually be happier if you had a lower

percentage, but you took more shots. Can

you kind of talk us through that?

>> Yeah, like if Luke Canard is J.R. Smith

or DLO, right? Daniel Russell, like he

probably doesn't need to be told

multiple times by his coach that you

have a green light. He's like, "Okay,

cool. I'm good." And then you're going

to take all sorts of shots. And what

what JJ Reic is is doing is trying to

say, "Hey, I appreciate the way you play

the game. That's why we wanted to trade

for you from Atlanta. You are a

conscientious basketball player. You do

look for your opportunities within the

team structure. What our team needs from

you right now is to to shoot it even

more so." and and maybe you have that

little internal governor that's been

built into your brain because that's the

only way you've gotten minutes as a role

player in the NBA. Remove that governor

a little bit. Put your foot on the gas

and we'd rather have you shoot six,

seven threes a game and and maybe a

couple of them aren't, you know, perfect

in your mind and you end up having a

lower percentage from three, but that's

going to do better for our team than if

you only shot three or four kind of

perfect threes. And you know, I JJ said

there was a couple examples and the one

I can think of is when he was kind of

leading the break, they put a wall in

the lane, Luke dribbled back out to the

left wing and just let it fly like that

and obviously he made it. That type of

shot is not the type of shot that Luke

Canard's gotten in his nine years in the

NBA. That's the type of shot that would

usually have him be pulled onto the

bench, but they he is like basically the

the best playmaker that they have other