BREAKING: Luka Doncic & Austin Reaves RETURN Update, Kevin Durant's Game 2 Status

Breaking news on the injury front in the

Lakers versus Rockets series. We've got

a big update on Kevin Durant, his

availability for game two, and the

latest on Austin Reeves and Luca Donuch,

and a bit of a timetable on when they

could return. I'm Trevor Lane. This is

the Basketball Bulletin. Make sure you

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please hit the button. Joining me,

Donnie Freeman. Connie, this is probably

one of the biggest injury updates that

we've gotten on Luca Donuch and Austin

Reeves, as well as an important one here

on KD.

>> Yeah, for sure. We haven't heard a lot

about the Laker guys at all. We're

definitely also keeping an eye on what's

happening with KD and his knee situation

uh because there was some footage of it

that came out yesterday, the day before,

and it didn't look like he was uh doing

too good. So, hopefully he's a you know,

hopefully he's healthy today for the

Rocket side of things. Um, but for the

Lakers, yeah, we have kind of wondered

who will be back sooner, how things have

gone, and it's pretty nice to hear more

information on these guys.

>> Donnie, you were talking like the

Rockets were shooting in game one.

>> Hey man, I because I I caught myself

between a rock and a hard place cuz I

was like, I'm a Laker fan, but I'm

trying to be objective. So, like I don't

I don't want KD back, but I also want to

be objective.

He got caught between wanting a man to

be healthy and wanting the Lakers to

win. I feel your pain. I feel your pain.

All right, here's here's Shaves Terania

uh with a a major update on Luca Donuch

and Austin Reeves. Here we go.

>> The sense around the Lakers is that

Austin Reeves is actually the one that's

further along than Luca Donuch in their

respective rehab processes. I am told

Austin Reeves has started one-on-one onc

court work. The next step for him is to

continue to go through the progressions

of three on three, five on five.

Remember early April here, he had a four

to six week timetable. So theoretically

that puts him at on track late in this

series, potentially early in the next

series. The Lakers are not expecting

Luca Dantic to be back in this series.

He is out indefinitely. But Austin

Reeves making some progress on the

court. The sense around

>> Okay. So, I mean, that's So, Austin

Reeves has progressed to playing

one-on-one. Next step is threeon-ree,

then five on five, and he could return

sometime in this series against the

Houston Rockets, probably later on in

the series. Whereas Luca Donuch, the

Lakers are not expecting him back this

series. It would be next series if he

comes back. Austin Reeves further along

than Luca Donuch. I mean, that Donnie,

we've been for days now, for weeks

really, we've been hearing, well, maybe

Austin can come back first. Actually,

Luca can come back first. Now we know

definitively Austin is ahead of Luca in

the recovery process. Luca sounds like

not playing against the Rockets. Austin

Reeves could return as we get deeper on

into this series. That's big news for a

Lakers team that I mean just getting one

of them back would be massive for this

club.

>> Oh yeah, absolutely. And you you

remember if you go back to when the

injury first got announced for Luca and

then Austin, it was like, okay, well

LeBron and Austin, they're going to have

to try to backpack this thing. And then

LeBron said it best. He he woke up and

was like, "What the hell?" Like Austin's

out too. And so we didn't expect Austin

to miss time considering he also played

throughout the rest of that game. We did

see Luca go down. I think that it kind

of got mixed up a little bit because,

you know, Luca takes the trip and gets

the the other procedures done and it's

like, okay, well, he's going to heal a

little bit faster. And initially, I

think it kind of sounded like he'd be

the one back. Everyone kind of operated

from that premise. But I don't and

forgive the ignorance here. I don't know

what other things linger with Austin

with that specific injury type, but I do

know that for Luca, you have to also be

very cautious because, you know, there's

reinjury there. These hamstrings, leg

injuries, that's not something to mess

with, right? So, that could also be a

part of it, too. Regardless of the

procedures he's uh undergone, they

probably also want to be as cautious as

possible, right? Because it could turn

into something much worse where you're

missing him for a much longer uh period

of time. And so if the Lakers can get

back Austin, you know, deeper in this

series, I think that'd be huge for them.

My question with these guys, no matter

when they come back, is, you know, if

the Lakers are still playing at that

time, is is there a ramp up period?

Obviously, there will be um you know,

how do they look when they have to just

kind of get thrust into a game, right?

How do they look? Are they playing at,

you know, 60% capacity? Like how do they

look out there? And is there like a

minutes restriction given that I know

it's the playoffs, you know, the

season's about to expire, but again, you

probably need to make sure that these

guys are as healthy as possible going

forward. So,

>> yeah, you you don't want to have a

recurrence. You don't want to have the

this injury wind up bleeding into the

summer and then next thing you know,

you've got uh your training, your

preparation for next season is put

that's where I think especially with

Luca with a hamstring injury, that's

where I think you have to be really

particularly concerned. And let's face

it, if the Lakers do survive, they

advance past the Houston Rockets, it's

OKC in round two, like we kind of know

the way that's going to go. I think they

need to be, especially with Luca very,

very cautious. Austin Reeves, it's an

oblique injury, grade two still, but but

an oblique injury. And you look at the

schedule coming up for this series. If

he's advanced to one-on-one play, you're

probably looking for another situation

where you've got, you know, two days off

between games. That's coming up here

between game two and game three. I don't

I wouldn't suggest that means he's back

Friday or anything like that because

going from three on three then you got

to see how he responds go to five on

five but you look there's another

threeame or three-day break between game

four and game five that's that's maybe

the window again this is me speculating

this is not official but based on what

Shams is saying is he's already at

one-on-one play he's got to get time in

practice three on three time in to do

five on five that gap between game four

and game five Maybe maybe that's the

target.

>> I I'm looking at that too, but I also

want to be aware of the fact that the

timeline was what four to six weeks

initially.

>> Correct. Yeah.

>> Um and and they got hurt on what the

second. So that to me looks like game

six or seven.

>> True.

>> Somewhere in that range.

>> Like maybe timeline.

>> Yeah. because that's already if you're

coming back four or five you're already

like three and a half weeks you know

three almost four weeks give or take but

you're not at that minimum number that

they had estimated which is great but

again I want to be as cautious as

possible because long-term injuries and

like I don't want to risk anything with

that and again we're talking about

Austin here but again same thing applies