Luka Doncic suffered an injury scare against the Milwaukee Bucks, and Skip Bayless believes JJ Redick is to blame.
Luka Doncic seemed to injure his ankle due to a dangerous closeout from Kyle Kuzma in the fourth quarter of a blowout win for the Los Angeles Lakers.
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Both players would end up leaving the game after getting hurt, but the Los Angeles Lakers still managed to earn a big win to extend their record to 11-2.
Skip Bayless questions JJ Redick not managing Luka Doncic’s minutes amid injury scare
Taking to X following the Los Angeles Lakers’ win against the Milwaukee Bucks, Skip Bayless criticised JJ Redick for not taking Luka Doncic out of the game before he injured his ankle.
He suggested that the Lakers were well on their way to a victory, and Redick should have ignored Doncic’s desire to score 30 points in order to avoid the injury scare.
Bayless wrote: “No idea why Luka was still in this blowout – just turned his ankle with AR already gone due to heel injury. I realise Luka wanted to at least get his 30 – he wound up with 32 – but JJ has to save Luka from himself and say that’s enough.”
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Bayless does make a valid point here. The Lakers had a significant lead at that point, and the Bucks were not making any efforts to mount a comeback.
While Doncic wanting to stay in the game and score 30 points is understandable, given that he had a rare poor shooting night and wanted to keep his streak of scoring 30+ points a game going, it was a risk that didn’t need to be taken.
Last season, Doncic missed a significant portion of the regular season and the Lakers’ entire playoff run due to an injury he sustained against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
There has been concern about Doncic’s fitness and health since he joined the Lakers. Even though he has looked much healthier coming into this season, injuries can occur at any time, and the Lakers didn’t need to take such an unnecessary risk with Doncic just to satisfy his desire to keep his individual numbers strong.
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Thankfully, the injury doesn’t appear to be serious, although more will be revealed tomorrow when the Lakers can conduct tests on Doncic’s ankle.
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