SALT LAKE CITY — The Lakers were without a trio of backcourt players for their road game against the Utah Jazz on Sunday night at Delta Center.
Starting guard Austin Reaves, reserve guard D’Angelo Russell and reserve wing Cam Reddish were sidelined, leaving the Lakers with just 10 available players against the Jazz, including two players signed to two-way contracts.
Reaves missed his first game of the season because of a bruised left pelvis after taking a hard fall during the second quarter of Friday’s home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
He rejoined the team midway through the third quarter of that game after going back to the locker room for the final 2½ minutes of the second, halftime and the first half of the third. Reaves finished with 11 points, five rebounds and three assists in 29 minutes.
The fourth-year guard had played in 129 consecutive regular-season games dating to Feb. 7, 2023, before missing Sunday’s game, including playing all 82 regular-season games last season.
He also played in 21 playoff games, two Play-In Tournament games and the 2023-24 NBA Cup title game during that stretch.
“Tissue issue, nothing with any bones in that area,” Coach JJ Redick said before Sunday’s game. “Just a significant fall. And he’s sore. And sometimes when you have trauma like that to tissue, it can kind of make you tight. And so we need to get that area just loosened up. But going forward, he’ll (play as much as the pain can be) tolerated.”
Gabe Vincent started in place of Reaves, alongside Dalton Knecht, Rui Hachimura, LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Vincent had a season-high eight points midway through the second quarter.
“The biggest thing for Gabe is just making sure that we’re organized,” Redick said pregame. “I would expect him to naturally get more shot attempts if that’s the volume you’re talking about. The biggest thing for him is just getting us organized. Even when he plays a lot of his minutes with D-Lo or AR, he’s not necessarily on the ball. So this will be a good opportunity for him to get some reps on the ball.”
Russell and Reddish both sat out because of an illness, leaving the Lakers with Vincent, Knecht, Hachimura, James and Davis; Jalen Hood-Schifino, Max Christie, Maxwell Lewis; and two-way players Christian Koloko and Armel Traore as their available players.
Hood-Schifino, the Lakers’ 2023 first-round draft pick, had only played one minute this season before Sunday.
He’s been on the injury report with left groin soreness and a strained left hamstring during November, also spending time with the Lakers’ South Bay G League affiliate. Hood-Schifino only played one G League game before Sunday.
“With Jalen, same messaging that we’ve had for our young guys, which is crash and cut hard,” Redick said. “Or screen and cut hard, crash, defend with toughness and bang 3s. Like we’re not looking for Jalen to be anything that he’s not. He just needs to be who he is and do it with toughness.”
Sunday was the first night of a back-to-back, with the Lakers traveling to Minneapolis overnight for a matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night.
