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Lakers' LeBron James and Austin Reaves' Statuses Revealed For Timberwolves Clash

Matt Levine

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
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The Los Angeles Lakers will be shorthanded once again against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday. The team has ruled out star forward LeBron James well ahead of the matchup.

Additionally, Los Angeles has listed guard Austin Reaves as questionable. The guard was upgraded to questionable after missing the past few games due to injury.

Losing James for this contest does hurt the team's chances of coming away with a win. It will be a tough ask for Los Angeles to go on the road and steal a game against the Timberwolves.

But if they can get Reaves back for the matchup, it could help even a little bit. James has been dealing with a nagging foot injury and this is the Lakers' way of helping him recover during the season.

James has also been playing heavy minutes and at almost 40 years old, the Lakers plan to be more cautious with him moving forward. Lakers head coach JJ Redick revealed this plan earlier in the week.

"In game, he's asked for a sub a couple times because he's gassed," Redick said Wednesday. "For us, we have to be cognizant as we play more and more games, just the cumulative effect of playing a lot of minutes, and Sunday, being banged up with the foot thing, it felt like a good opportunity for him to get some rest."

Reaves took a hard fall a while ago against the Oklahoma City Thunder and hasn't played since. The Lakers have been trying to navigate things without him but he is a central piece of what Los Angeles does.

The hope is that Reaves can make his return to the court and help the Lakers continue getting back on track. Los Angeles has lost seven of their last 10 games overall and they have come back down to earth from their hot start to the year.

Redick revealed that the team would be doing some "internal auditing" to figure out any problems moving forward.

“We’ve already started doing some internal auditing,” coach JJ Redick said after the Lakers’ 107-98 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday. “Some comparisons between the first 14 games, really offensively the first 15 games, and what we’ve done the (next 10 games). Just trying to figure out what works, what doesn’t. … It’s a good opportunity for everybody.”

It remains to be seen if Reaves can suit up but Los Angeles will have a challenge ahead of themselves either way.

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Matt Levine
MATT LEVINE

Matt earned a Master of Science degree in Sport Management from Louisiana State University in 2021. He was born and raised in the Los Angeles area, covering all Southern California sports in his career.

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