It’s tough to walk away from a game that had so many positives with such a sour taste. The Lakers left Milwaukee with a 123-112 victory, a result far more comfortable than the final score suggests and that serves not only to string together seven consecutive wins but also to place them in sole possession of the NBA’s top spot. The mood should be one of euphoria. And yet, the Angelenos headed to the locker room overwhelmed by a sense of concern.
Concern over the status of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
Both players had to exit the game with injuries, and while neither seemed to suffer a serious ailment, it appears they could miss some time. It’s true that the Lakers have shown in recent games they can survive without their respective stars, but having to survive both at once is a different challenge altogether.
Reaves was the first to go, as the guard headed to the bench in the third quarter to request a substitution after a few possessions in which he appeared to hobble rather noticeably. The origin of his discomfort seems to have been a rough landing after attempting a transition dunk, an action from which he exited slightly wobbly and which occurred just three minutes before his departure.
Austin first appeared to tweak something on this dunk attempt but stayed in the game coming out of the timeout: https://t.co/6Nq9dFzwdE
— Khobi Price (@khobi_price) November 12, 2026
Nevertheless, it remains unclear exactly where Austin might have sustained the injury, a stark contrast to Luka Doncic’s situation. For whatever condition the Slovenian has, it is his right ankle that appears to be affected.
It was there that the guard clutched at his ankle after colliding with Kyle Kuzma’s foot following a three-point attempt, an action the officials did not deem a flagrant foul but that unquestionably carried serious consequences for him. Doncic collapsed to the floor immediately and took a considerable time to get back up, and when he did it was merely to shoot a free throw, wait for his teammates to foul, and make his way to the locker room.
Luka left on his own feet, but his expressions of pain raised questions about his condition. Questions that we may start to see clarified in the hours to come.
All told, the Slovenian still put up 32 points and carried on his hot stretch, while Reaves also shone with 18. Yet, as the night wore on there was time for many of Redick’s rotation players to grab their moment, a thread that no one exploited as effectively as Sandro Mamukelashvili, who finished with 23 points for the second consecutive game and cemented himself as one of the pillars of the Lakers’ second unit.
