Luka Doncic Cleared to Return for Lakers Against Warriors in NBA Cup Opener

Luka Doncic is off the Los Angeles Lakers injury report and is available for Friday, October 30 game at the Golden State Warriors. Sports Illustrated, ClutchPoints and FantasyPros all reported the clearance ahead of the road game at Chase Center in San Francisco, citing the Lakers injury report and beat reporters Ryan Ward and Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

Doncic missed the Lakers game on Wednesday, October 28 against the LA Clippers because of a back issue. Los Angeles won that game 103 to 87 without him. Reports described the problem as back tightness, and the absence was his first missed game in the stretch covered by these reports after a run of high scoring games for the Lakers early in the season.

Why the Lakers sat him out

Lakers head coach JJ Redick said before the Clippers game that Doncic status was nothing overly concerning and that the decision was precautionary. The caution came as the team heads into a stretch of five games in seven nights, a run where one extra night of rest can protect a player who carries a heavy share of the offence.

That workload is clear in the numbers in the reports. Doncic is averaging 36.0 points per game this season with 8.3 assists per game. He scored 41 points against Portland and 52 points against Utah in recent games, two of the scoring nights that have set the pace for the Lakers 4 and 1 start. A team with that record can win a home game without its top scorer, as it did against the Clippers, and still needs him for a road game against a Warriors team that has won its last two games.

The rest of the Lakers report

Doncic is not the only name on the Lakers report for Friday. Forward Ziaire Williams is listed as questionable for the game at Golden State, according to Sports Illustrated, citing Ryan Ward. Cameron Carr and Adou Thiero remain out. The report therefore gives the Lakers their main scorer back while still leaving the bench rotation short, with Williams status to be settled closer to tipoff.

What Friday game is

Friday game tips off at 10 p.m. ET at Chase Center. It is the first Emirates NBA Cup group stage game for both teams, so the result counts in the regular season standings and in the Cup group at the same time. That gives a late October game an extra edge that a normal regular season meeting would not carry on its own.

The teams have already met once this season. The Lakers beat the Warriors 127 to 105 in their first meeting on October 21, when Doncic was involved in a trash talking exchange with Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, ClutchPoints reported. With Doncic cleared, the rematch in San Francisco pairs the same scorer who set the tone in that first game against a Warriors side coming in on a two game winning run, and with the Cup opener giving both teams a first step in the group.