JJ Redick discusses the injury issues throughout the season with the Lakers big three.
Expectations were high coming into the season for the Los Angeles Lakers with Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves on the roster.
The trio disappointed in the 2025 playoffs, losing in five games to the Minnesota Timberwolves, but a full offseason and training camp with Doncic combined with offseason moves gave new optimism in Los Angeles.
A second round sweep at the hands of the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder sounds a bit disappointing when read out loud, but factor in the injury to Doncic and it becomes more tolerable.
In the regular season, the Lakers showed growth under JJ Redick, improving by three wins despite his top three players missing large chunks of time and not building chemistry until late in the season.
Big Three Injuries
The Lakers started the season without LeBron James, who missed the first 14 games. When he returned, Luka Doncic was sidelined for a handful of games. By the time he was back, Austin Reaves went down with an injury on Christmas Day.
The trio never got into an established rhythm until Reaves returned at the beginning of February.
After some trial and error, and an All-Star break to fine-tune things, the big three started to click in March. The Lakers won 15 of 17 games from March 1 to March 31. Doncic missed one game and LeBron missed three during that stretch, but the results spoke for themselves.
On April 2 against the Thunder, disaster struck as Luka and Reaves suffered injuries that would keep them out for the rest of the regular season.
"I wish we had more time with those guys all in the lineup. We were just beginning to see what that could look like when Luka and AR got hurt and that's sort of the disappointing part because I think we all felt that excitement and that belief that we were beginning to be a championship level team and would have loved to have seen that group that was finishing the regular season be able to play healthy in the playoffs," JJ Redick said after the season ended.
Reaves would return late in the first round against the Houston Rockets, but Luka would not play another minute in the season.
The March Stretch
In the month of March, James, Reaves, and Luka played 13 games and 287 minutes together. They had an offensive rating of 124.2 and a defensive rating of 105.8.
Among trios that played more than 280 minutes together, they had the third best net rating in the league.
Alongside Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart, the Lakers started to find an identity on both ends of the floor that put them in a position to potentially challenge the Thunder or San Antonio Spurs once the playoffs began.
The loss of Doncic in the playoffs compromised the offense and put more pressure on the defense. While they still had enough to get past a flawed Rockets team missing Kevin Durant, it was too much to ask against the defending champions.