Reaves returns to the Lakers, participating in training! ESPN panel of 12 experts, 11 do not favor the Lakers.

Today, the Lakers have started training to prepare for the first game of the series against the Rockets. Reaves also returned to the court, but he wore slippers and engaged in simple shooting drills. The team's first playoff preparation training ended with Reaves making a corner three-pointer.

Today, the Lakers achieved their so-called full roster status—meaning Reaves and Doncic are still not present. Redick reaffirmed that this will continue for a period of time.

“They are out indefinitely. I won’t provide any updates this week; they are out indefinitely.”

According to a league source, Doncic will stay in Spain for a few more days, remaining in Madrid until Friday, when he plans to fly back to Los Angeles to join the team before their first playoff game.

Doncic suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain on April 2. Although he went to Spain shortly after the injury and began active treatment at Real Madrid’s training base, a Grade 2 strain typically requires 4-6 weeks of recovery.

Reaves sustained a Grade 2 oblique strain in the same game where Doncic injured his hamstring. He has remained in Los Angeles for treatment. Similarly, his injury also requires 4-6 weeks of recovery, and he is expected to miss the start of the playoffs as well.

The Lakers have clearly stated that they are preparing for a prolonged absence of their backcourt duo. Redick indicated that the team’s task is to extend the season long enough for both players to return.

During today’s training, Redick said the Lakers have distilled the key points for the series against the Rockets into two: “Protect the ball and box out for rebounds.”

Redick mentioned that the Lakers addressed rebounding issues at the start of training and have been studying how to ensure ball-handling responsibilities don’t fall entirely on James alone.

“We’ve been doing this for 82 games over the past two years, so it’s nothing different,” Redick said regarding managing the workload of 41-year-old James. “We’ll be mindful. I do believe we have other options besides having him face set defenses with the ball every time. We’ll try mixing different tactics based on their lineup and defensive strategy.”

However, for the Lakers missing their starting backcourt, the message conveyed today was straightforward.

“We must box out for rebounds,” Redick stated. “We’ll emphasize this in every segment of training. Today we started training with box-out rebounding. You have to implant it in the players’ minds. Honestly, today we only talked about one thing regarding the Rockets. Conduct one training session to sharpen our tactics.”

“Tomorrow we’ll introduce the Rockets’ players. Thursday we’ll do our usual tactical analysis. Friday will solidify the tactical analysis. Saturday we’ll be ready to play. The only thing done today was box-out rebounding.”

Prominent commentator Perkins stated that if James can defeat Durant and the Rockets in the first round, the debate over the greatest player can be settled: “If a 41-year-old LeBron James wins this series in a head-to-head matchup against Kevin Durant, then I don’t want to hear any nonsense about the greatest ever again.”

If the Lakers had Doncic and Reaves, handling the Rockets wouldn’t be a major issue. But now the burden falls entirely on James alone, and external predictions for this series show a one-sided trend.

The ESPN panel, consisting of 12 experts, predicted the outcome of the Lakers-Rockets series. Including Lakers beat reporter Dave McMenamin, 11 favor the Rockets advancing, with the series lasting at least five games. Only one person, veteran reporter Marc J. Spears, predicts the Lakers will eliminate the Rockets 4-2.

This Lakers team, against any weak opponent, cannot claim 100% certainty of victory. James, this time, can he still turn the tide? Hopefully, yes.