LOS ANGELES — The Dallas Mavericks pushed back Wednesday against Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick’s assertion that the team’s medical staff scanned the wrong area when administering an MRI for Lakers guard Austin Reaves over the weekend.
In a statement first issued to DLLS Sports and later provided to ESPN, the Mavericks said their medical personnel “followed standard imaging protocols based on the information provided at the time” and added, “There was no error in the scan performed.”
Redick, speaking after a Lakers practice Saturday on Southern Methodist University’s campus in Dallas, said Reaves required two MRIs to identify a Grade 2 left oblique strain and blamed the initial scan’s execution on the Mavericks. “I don’t know where the chain of command lies with Dallas imaging, but they scanned the wrong area,” Redick said then. “So [the mistake was] not on our end. We made it explicit what was supposed to be scanned, but they scanned the wrong area.”
A Lakers spokesperson declined to comment to ESPN on Tuesday about the sequence of events surrounding the MRI. Redick later took a softer tone before L.A.’s game versus Oklahoma City, saying, “In the end, we got the image we needed,” and expressing appreciation for the home team’s accommodation.
Reaves sustained the injury in the first half of the Lakers’ 139-96 loss to the Thunder last Thursday but returned to finish with a team-high 15 points in 27 minutes. The Lakers have ruled the fifth-year guard out for the remainder of the regular season; sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania that Reaves is expected to miss four to six weeks.
Los Angeles (50-28) sits fourth in the Western Conference with four games left, a half-game behind Denver but holding the tiebreaker after winning the season series. The Lakers’ remaining schedule includes the Thunder (home), at Golden State, at home vs. Phoenix, and a season-ending home game against Utah.
