The injuries are quickly starting to pile up for the Lakers. With Rui Hachimura already ruled out for the contest after leaving Thursday’s game with an injury, Austin Reaves is now also unavailable.

Reaves played nine minutes in the first quarter before exiting the game and not returning. After being ruled out in the first half, Dave McMenamin of ESPN reported he would have an MRI on his calf on Saturday.

Simply getting an MRI is not necessarily a red flag. Hachimura also received one on Friday, as Redick discussed prior to Friday’s contest. But it goes without saying that losing him for any extended time would be a big blow.

Reaves has been a workhorse for the Lakers this season. He’s averaged 34.7 minutes per game and played in 51 of the team’s 56 games. It would be an enormous hole in the lineup the team would have to fill.

Losing Reaves and Rui back-to-back, though, would put a lot of pressure on the Lakers offense. Those are, arguably, your third and fourth options on that end of the floor. Without them, the asks on LeBron James and Luka Dončić would increase.

The Lakers have a tough schedule coming up and an unforgiving one. The team will play every other day until March 10. After two days between road games, they will then have six games in eight days with a trio of back-to-backs due to rescheduled games after the wildfires earlier in the season.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.