The Los Angeles Lakers are already navigating one of the roughest stretches of their season, having lost both Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves to injury within days of each other.
But the chaos surrounding Reaves’ diagnosis took an unexpected turn when head coach JJ Redick publicly called out the Dallas Mavericks’ medical facility for scanning the wrong area during his initial MRI.
Now the Mavericks are pushing back, and the back-and-forth between the two franchises has drawn attention from across the league as both sides dig in ahead of the playoffs.
Mavericks Shoot Down JJ Redick’s Claims
In a statement provided to DLLS Sports, the Dallas Mavericks directly disputed Redick’s account of what happened during Reaves’ imaging process:
“Our medical team followed standard imaging protocols based on the information provided at the time. There was no error in the scan performed.”
The Mavericks, in a statement to @DLLS_Sports, dispute JJ Redick’s claim that they administered an MRI to Austin Reaves incorrectly:
“Our medical team followed standard imaging protocols based on the information provided at the time. There was no error in the scan performed.”
— Ron Harrod Jr. (@RonKnowsSports) April 7, 2026
That statement stands in direct contrast to what Redick told reporters on Saturday, April 5. During his media availability, a visibly frustrated Redick detailed how Reaves was forced to undergo two separate MRI scans after the first one targeted the wrong part of his body.
Redick said the Lakers were clear about what needed to be examined, putting the blame squarely on the Mavericks’ imaging team.
Redick said at his press conference that the Lakers were in Dallas ahead of Sunday’s road game against the Mavericks, which is the reason the team used Dallas’ medical facility for the imaging in the first place. Reaves had picked up the injury during Thursday’s 139-96 blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the team needed to get him scanned before their next game.
The diagnosis that eventually came back from the correct scan was a Grade 2 left oblique strain. Reaves has been ruled out for the rest of the regular season, and with the NBA Playoffs set to tip off on April 18, there is real concern about whether he will be ready for the postseason at all.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported a four-to-six week recovery timeline, which would put his return right around or just after the start of the first round.
For a Lakers team that had built its entire offensive identity around Reaves and Dončić, the timing is about as bad as it gets. Reaves had been putting together the best season of his career, averaging 23.3 points, 5.5 assists, and 4.7 rebounds per game while shooting 49% from the field.
Dončić, meanwhile, was on pace for his second career scoring title at 33.5 points per game before going down with a Grade 2 hamstring strain in the same game Reaves got hurt.
With the Mavericks now flatly denying any error on their end, the two organizations are effectively calling each other out with no middle ground in sight.
The Mavericks’ statement suggests the imaging team acted on the information they had, implying the miscommunication may have originated elsewhere. Redick’s account, however, was unambiguous: the Lakers told them exactly what to scan, and Dallas scanned something else.
As for the Lakers’ playoff situation, they entered Monday at 50-28 and sitting third in the Western Conference, one game ahead of the Denver Nuggets.
With five games left in the regular season and LeBron James now carrying the load at 41 years old, Redick said the team still plans to compete for a favorable seed. The mission, in his words, has not changed. He has pointed to Luke Kennard, Rui Hachimura, and Deandre Ayton as players who will need to step up in the absence of the two stars.
Whether or not the truth of what happened in that Dallas imaging room ever fully comes out, the damage is already done. Reaves is sidelined, the Lakers are short-handed heading into the most important stretch of their season, and two franchises are now in a public dispute over who is responsible for what has become one of the strangest subplots of the 2025-26 NBA season.
