Lakers news: Reaves and Hachimura injury updates, defensive excellence, another LeBron milestone

If the Los Angeles Lakers were a stock, the early investors would be making some serious bank right now. Nothing can stop the Pacific Division leaders, as they've won six straight games and 16 of their past 19 to surge into a tie with the Nuggets for the 2-seed in the West.

The Lakers have beaten all comers during their latest winning streak, as they've taken out the Blazers and Nuggets on the road, followed by a win in Luka Doncic's first revenge game against the Mavericks, a close one over the Wolves and two straight against the crosstown Clippers.

They say there's no such thing as bad publicity, but honestly, nearly everything is coming up roses for JJ Redick's team right now. Does that mean the Lakers are serious contenders for a title? We'll see about all that, but for now, Lakers fans are definitely enjoying the ride.

Let's kick off the week with the latest Lakers news to know, from Austin Reaves' and Rui Hachimura's status to the main catalyst of L.A.'s ascension in the standings and yet another one-of-one milestone that LeBron James is about to hit.

When can the Lakers expect Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura to return?

Austin Reaves left Friday night's win over the Clippers in the first quarter with tightness in his right calf, a development that threatened to derail all the good vibes the Lakers have been accumulating. Head coach JJ Redick said after the game that Reaves "was held out as a precaution," but as Mavericks fans know all too well, calf injuries are notoriously difficult to recover from and to keep from happening again.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported on Saturday that an MRI showed no serious injury to Reaves' calf and that he was considered day-to-day. He sat out Sunday night's game, and Redick said, "I feel like it was good news that there wasn't anything structural or any muscle injury. So we'll manage him like we would any other player and when he's ready to go, he'll be back."

Any Lakers fan can tell you how important Reaves has been to this team all year, but even they might not realize just how important. The Lakers are a combined 18-4 when LeBron, Anthony Davis, Luka or Rui Hachimura misses a game. Without Reaves, they're only 3-3.

Hachimura has been out with patellar tendinopathy since he limped off the court against the Timberwolves on Thursday. Redick said that the team is optimistic that the injury isn't serious, but there's no set timeline for his return.

Hachimura has now missed three games with the injury, and though the team has continued winning, they'd love to have him back soon.

The real key to the Lakers' winning ways

Luka and LeBron have gotten the spotlight, but there's an unsung hero that is even more responsible for the Lakers' recent winning ways. It's the defense, which has gone from being a net negative to the literal best in the NBA.

We're past the point where L.A.'s stinginess can be chalked up to a small sample outlier. This has been happening for weeks, and it's been especially noteworthy because of how the Lakers have looked since trading Anthony Davis. If you had shown this to someone a month ago, they would have scheduled an intervention for you:

Put simply, the Lakers aren't letting anybody score on them. They held the Clippers to 43 first-half points on Sunday night and only 102 for the game, the seventh straight game they've held their opponent to 102 points or less. For reference, the lowest-scoring team this year is the Magic, who are putting up 104 points per game. The average NBA team scores 113.5 points per game. To hold seven straight opponents to 102 or less in 2025 is INSANE.

How could the Lakers have improved so dramatically without AD? Certain players deserve credit, especially LeBron and Jaxson Hayes. JJ Redick deserves a ton. What this really feels like, though, is that Davis was the smart kid in class who did the group project by himself while everyone else got a B. After Davis changed schools, everyone suddenly had to actually do some work, and voila, the team has become greater than the sum of its parts. A+, baby.

LeBron is on the verge of another milestone

We shouldn't be surprised by now when LeBron does something that we've never seen before. As the oldest active player in the NBA, it seems to be a nightly occurrence. Still, we should never take for granted just how singular a career he's had.

LeBron is already the leading scorer in NBA history, which is just as much a testament to his longevity as it is his scoring prowess. Now, he's on the verge of hitting a number that might just be unbreakable.

LeBron has 41,837 points in the regular season, now almost 3,500 points ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for first all-time. Add all the points from his extensive playoff career, however, and he's at 49,999, which is 5,850 clear of Kareem.

One online commenter made the astute point that LeBron has actually already eclipsed 50,000 total NBA points, because of his stats from the play-in tournament, and for the NBA Cup (I'll take credit for that one).

The Lakers play the Pelicans on Tuesday, and something tells me LeBron will get to the official 50,000 then.