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JJ Redick provides Doncic and Reaves injury updates ahead of playoffs; Lakers focus on rebounding vs. Rockets

April 14, 2026

EL SEGUNDO — The first day of preparation practices for the Houston Rockets in the first round of the NBA playoffs brought Lakers players to a throwback.

Drills of middle school, high school and college basketball’s distant memory; all of which for Lakers coach JJ Redick, come from the reality of not having Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves at his disposal. Doncic and Reaves, who both suffered Grade 2 strains, remain out “indefinitely,” Redick said Tuesday. The margin for error becomes smaller with nearly half of the Lakers’ scoring production on the sidelines for at least most of the first round.

“Scheme, personnel, obviously important, but if we don’t take care of the ball and we don’t box out,” Redick said Tuesday in the Lakers’ first pre-playoffs practice, “we’re not gonna win the series.”

Wednesday, Redick said, they’ll introduce the Rockets’ personnel – the likes of Kevin Durant, Amen Thompson and Alperen Şengün – before turning to the Houston scout on Thursday and a reinforcement of that scout on Friday before Saturday’s Game 1 in Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, however, the Lakers focused on those finite details that may be the difference between scraping out wins over the Rockets or a quick hello and goodbye to postseason basketball.

“We started practice with boxing out today,” Redick said. “You got to put it in their minds. That’s literally the only thing we said about Houston today. Today was about us. Having a practice, getting sharp with our stuff … only thing we did was box out.”

Said forward Jake LaRavia about Tuesday’s box-out drills: “We don’t do them enough during the season and sometimes you kind of forget or can get lethargic about (boxing out). … It’s good to kind of just come back to what started it, when you were in middle school and high school.”

Redick told a story about Hall-of-Fame Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski having the Blue Devils run box-out drills – “War” popularized by Tom Izzo at Michigan State – after a defeat to Virginia Tech where Duke allowed 49 rebounds in an upset loss to the unranked Hokies.

“Coach writes down four walk-ons’ names on the board,” Redick said. “He says, ‘I don’t know who the fifth starter is going to be, but these four guys are going to start.’”

Krzyzewski watched from the Cameron Indoor Stadium stands as Redick and his teammates practiced the box-out drill for a full hour. Redick claimed he earned a starting spot to face Chris Paul and Wake Forest because of his rebounding effort. ‘Coach K’ was partial inspiration for the Lakers on Tuesday. Guard Marcus Smart dialed back to memories of wrestling with his brothers on the basketball court when they were kids.

“No blood, no fouls,” Smart said his brothers would say. “So I got hit with elbows, I got pushed, I got kicked and it was all for that reason. You’re going to be playing against men. You’re never going to be the tallest, the most athletic, the fastest. So you got to find ways.”

The Lakers will have to find ways against the Rockets in the first-round games ahead.

Houston is the best offensive rebounding team in the NBA, tallying 15 offensive rebounds per game with the likes of Sengun and Clint Capela patrolling the interior. The Rockets outrebounded the Lakers in each of the three games they played during the regular season, despite the Lakers winning twice, combining for a combined 39 additional rebounds.

That reality, combined with the absences of “luxury” playmaking, as Smart put it, makes the Lakers shift to a different style of basketball.

“Luka in particular, that can just go in a zone, go on a scoring streak, right?” Smart said. “We don’t have that luxury anymore. So it’s going to be dependent on everybody. We’re going to lean on everybody.”

Jaxson Hayes, the Lakers backup center who had missed the last four games with left foot soreness, was a full participant in Tuesday’s practice. He said that he can best impact the game with rebounding and energy alongside starting center Deandre Ayton.

“I know I can impact the game with my energy: running, getting rebounds, boxing guys out,” Hayes said. “Especially like Clint and the bigs. I know they be on the glass heavy, so just making sure I keep them off and doing whatever the team needs me to do.”

Orange County Register

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JJ Redick provides Doncic and Reaves injury updates ahead of playoffs; Lakers focus on rebounding vs. Rockets

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