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Austin Reaves' absence for the next four weeks or more due to a gastrocnemius strain is big for the Los Angeles Lakers. They will miss the 26.6 points and 6.3 assists a game he's been putting up this season, not to mention the consistent pressure he puts on opposing defenses.
Reaves has also taken a considerable amount of pressure off Luka Doncic and LeBron James. With him out, coach JJ Redick has decided to tweak his rotations a bit.
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He has normally played Doncic throughout the first quarters of games, but in Sunday's win over the Sacramento Kings, he subbed the Slovenian out with 2:31 left in the first quarter. Redick explained his reasoning for this change.
“I think, particularly with AR out, it just gives more time for those guys to sort of be the quarterback, without the other one,” Redick said. “Having said that, we ran a lot of stuff for them to be in two-man action, for them to be part of the play together tonight.
“So it’s not like we’re trying to keep them apart. It’s just kind of the nature of what we’re trying to do and we’re going to do this for the foreseeable future and just see how it goes. But I thought, it was good tonight. It’s a longer stretch for LeBron. It’s a shorter stretch for Luka, but it’s not going to diminish either of their overall playing time.”
Having a player as good as Reaves sitting out due to injury can have a ripple effect in terms of rotations and requiring certain players to take on a greater workload. Making sure Doncic and James don't become overworked will have to be one of Redick's bigger priorities until Reaves is cleared to return.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: JJ Redick has changed Luka Doncic's substitution pattern
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