MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Lakers star Luka Doncic and veteran guard Marcus Smart made their returns to the court in Friday night’s road game against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Doncic missed the past three games because of a sprained left finger he suffered during the first quarter of the Oct. 24 home victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves and a lower left leg contusion.
Smart, the 31-year-old who the Lakers signed during the offseason, sat out the previous two games because of a right quadriceps contusion he suffered in last Sunday’s road win over the Sacramento Kings.
Coach JJ Redick said Doncic, who wasn’t with the team for Wednesday’s road win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, flew to Memphis on Thursday and went through on-court work Thursday night.
Doncic also participated in the team’s Friday morning shootaround after both he and Smart entered the day as questionable on the team’s injury report.
“We are obviously going to be mindful of both these guys coming into this game with contusions, so we’ll just communicate with them in real time,” Redick said. “Just glad to have those guys back.”
The Lakers started Doncic and Smart alongside Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton against the Grizzlies.
HALLOWEEN COSTUME
With Friday being Halloween, Redick addressed one of the more infamous moments of his 15-season NBA career – when he dressed up as Emmet Brickowski from “The Lego Movie” series during the holiday in 2019 during his first season with the New Orleans Pelicans.
“I wasn’t allowed to trick-or-treat growing up,” Redick explained. “It was considered a pagan holiday for much of my childhood. First year in New Orleans, we went down to State Street in sorta uptown and we were all dressed as Lego character movies. My family and I, unfortunately, I can’t do it this year, but we’ve been thematically dressing.
“We’ve gone as Super Mario Brothers characters. We’ve gone as the Avengers, we did the Flintstones one year. It was the end of my career, and I was like ‘I never do anything.’ Like I, I never got to wear a headband, I never wore neon shoes. And so that year in New Orleans, I was just like, I’m just gonna do stuff that I’ve always wanted to do. And so I’ve always wanted to go as a character for Halloween. I wish I had worn the pants. I had some jeans on. The Lego hands were, they were problematic.”
NBA CUP
Friday’s matchup was the first of four NBA Cup Group Play games for the Lakers.
The Lakers’ three other Group Play matchups are at the New Orleans Pelicans on Nov. 14, at home vs. the Clippers on Nov. 25 and at home vs. the Dallas Mavericks on Nov. 28.
“It’s my little taste of an All-Star Game,” Ayton said of the tournament. “It feels like that’s when everybody [is] watching, and everybody playing their hardest. Dudes are playing extremely hard. It feels like playoff games, the fans are super into it.”
Group play games for the 2025 NBA Cup will take place on Tuesdays and Fridays from Oct. 31-Nov. 28 before the knockout rounds.
Eight teams will advance to the quarterfinals: the team with the best standing in group play games in each of the six groups and one wild-card team from each conference. The wild card will be the team from each conference with the best record in group play games that finished second in its group (with point differential a tiebreaker).
Smart agreed with Ayton’s assessment that the tournament has brought a higher level of competitiveness to the early portion of the NBA’s regular season.
“It’s paid off,” Smart said. “The competitive nature of the games has increased. You see more highlights in the game of basketball. And that’s what it’s about, coming out and giving the fans what they pay for, what they ask for – it’s doing a good job of that.”
The Lakers went undefeated and won the inaugural NBA Cup in 2023, but didn’t qualify for the knockout rounds last season after going 2-2 in Group Play matchups, with the Milwaukee Bucks winning last year’s tournament.
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