![\"Luka](\"https:\/\/lakersnation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/LeBron-James-Luka-Doncic-6.jpg\")
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The Los Angeles Lakers kicked off their preseason slate on Friday night in Palm Springs against the Phoenix Suns, although superstars LeBron James and Luka Doncic were among the players that didn\u2019t suit up.<\/p>\n
James has been dealing with a minor glute injury early in camp, so JJ Redick made it clear early on that he would not be suiting up against the Suns along with other injured players Marcus Smart, Maxi Kleber and Adou Thiero.<\/p>\n
Doncic, on the other hand, is healthy but coming off a summer in which he played for Slovenia in EuroBasket, the Lakers are being cautious to ensure he is not overworked before the season.<\/p>\n
Ahead of Friday night\u2019s game, Redick discussed the plan for Doncic this preseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a coach, you want all those guys out on the court. That\u2019s just the reality. We want to be smart with both of them. Two different situations, but we\u2019re gonna treat it sort of the same way,\u201d<\/em> Redick said of Doncic and James.<\/p>\n \u201cOur expectation is Luka will play in the preseason. We\u2019re gonna use next week to continue to just get him in a good spot with his body and energy and all that stuff. He was great the first two days of camp, it was a lot. I think it made sense given his workload this summer to just kind of pull back. He\u2019s in a great place physically, mentally. So we\u2019ll just continue to use next week to get him ramped up and get all the guys acclimated with him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n It remains to be seen if James will suit up this preseason, but Redick broke down what he has been doing so far in training camp.<\/p>\n \u201cFor him, it\u2019s different in Year 23,\u201d Redick said. \u201cFor a normal return-to-play protocol, we try to get 1-on-1, 2-on-2, 3-on-3 exposure versus coaches and then eventually live. He knows his body, so we\u2019ll work with him, we\u2019ll work with Mike (Mancias) on making sure he gets a point of comfort where he can sort of be a full participant. But he\u2019s been on the court every day, he\u2019s been in the weight room continuing to get his body ready. But he\u2019s been doing his individual workouts with (Greg) St. Jean.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n While getting reps to build chemistry during the preseason would be ideal, it is not gonna come at the risk of getting their superstars injured or overworked.<\/p>\n The Lakers have six total preseason games so hopefully Doncic and James will be able to play in a couple of them. If not, the organization clearly has trust that they will both be ready for Opening Night.<\/p>\n Luka Doncic describes Lakers training camp in three words<\/strong><\/p>\n With it being Luka Doncic\u2019s first training camp in L.A., he is still getting adjusted to things. When the superstar was asked to describe the first few days of camp using three words though, he came up with fun, excitement and hard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Los Angeles Lakers kicked off their preseason slate on Friday night in Palm Springs against the Phoenix Suns, although superstars LeBron James and Luka Doncic were… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n