{"id":295685,"date":"2025-10-11T21:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T21:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/295685\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T21:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T21:54:12","slug":"luka-doncic-to-play-in-two-of-lakers-final-four-preseason-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/295685\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Don\u010di\u0107 to play in two of Lakers\u2019 final four preseason games"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Luka<\/p>\n

Luka Don\u010di\u0107 looks on during a preseason game against the Golden State Warriors. Thearon W. Henderson \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. \u2014 Luka Don\u010di\u0107 will play for the Lakers this preseason and could make his debut as soon as Sunday against Golden State, Lakers coach JJ Redick said.<\/p>\n

Speaking after a practice Saturday in which Don\u010di\u0107 was a full participant, Redick said the star guard was \u201cTBD\u201d for Sunday. The plan, Redick said, is for Don\u010di\u0107 to play two of the Lakers\u2019 final four preseason games.<\/p>\n

Don\u010di\u0107 said his conservative approach to playing in the preseason is due to the month-plus he spent training and playing with the Slovenian national team for the EuroBasket championships.<\/p>\n

Redick said Lakers guard Marcus Smart, who also missed the Lakers\u2019 first two preseason games, will make his debut for the team against the Warriors on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are navigating a disjointed preseason as Redick and the organization have juggled Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s load management, Smart\u2019s Achilles tendinopathy and LeBron James\u2019 sciatic nerve irritation. Last week, the Lakers said James would be reevaluated in three to four weeks as he tries to ramp up for his 23rd season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big change. He\u2019s a great player. He can help us a lot,\u201d Don\u010di\u0107 said of James\u2019 injury. \u201cBut at the end of the day, our mentality needs to be next man up. We got a group of guys that have been practicing, and hopefully, LeBron can join us as soon as possible. We are going to obviously need him. But our mentality has got to be next man up. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redick said the Lakers have not settled on a starting lineup with James\u2019 absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew this going into camp, so it wasn\u2019t like it\u2019s changed anything for how we want to practice or what our philosophies are with these preseason games,\u201d Redick said. \u201cIt is unclear who\u2019s gonna be, what the starting lineup is gonna be. That\u2019s the reality, until he is back. We\u2019ll have to figure that out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Connections:\"Connections:<\/p>\n

Oct 11, 2025<\/p>\n

Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n

Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n

Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luka Don\u010di\u0107 looks on during a preseason game against the Golden State Warriors. Thearon W. Henderson \/ Getty…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":295686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3141,1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-295685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115357762867493897","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}