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Welcome back to The Times’ Lakers newsletter, where we are freezing out butts off on this East Coast trip.

As the team continues to work its way through the Grammy trip, your usual scribe who writes this newsletter, Thuc Nhi Nguyen, is off to Milan to cover the Winter Olympics. That means you are stuck with me, Broderck Turner, for the next month to discuss the Lakers here.

Austin Reaves’ return?

At some point on this eight-game trip, the prevailing thought was that Austin Reaves would return to play after being out with a left calf strain. But we are still waiting for that to happen.

The Lakers’ last game on this trip is Tuesday at Brooklyn, meaning Reaves will have been out a little over 5 ½-weeks since the injury first occurred during the Christmas Day game against the Houston Rockets.

Reaves had been upgraded from out to questionable for the games at Washington on Friday night and the New York Knicks on Sunday, but didn’t play.

And for the Nets game Tuesday, the Lakers have listed Reaves as questionable.

Lakers coach JJ Redick said Reaves worked out on Saturday but it was not “like a stay-ready game.”

Before the Lakers played the Knicks, Redick said Reaves would be a game-time decision.

Reaves did not play, missing his 19th straight game.

“Yeah, I just would say he’s day to day, game to game, however you want to phrase it,” Redick said after the Lakers lost to the Knicks. “ We’re hopeful to have him for Tuesday, but he’s gotta feel 100% confident.”

In many ways, Reaves and the Lakers face a conundrum regarding his health.

Reaves always wants to play and the Lakers need him to play, but calf injuries can be tricky and can lead to more serious injuries if they aren’t completely healed.

Reaves had missed three games in December with a mild left calf strain, returned to play against the Suns and then went down one game later against the Rockets on Christmas.

Reaves was then diagnosed with a Grade 2 left gastrocnemius (calf) strain and was given a timeline of four to six weeks before a return to play.

Luka Doncic had been out with a calf strain for more than a month when the Lakers traded for him from the Dallas Mavericks last February.

“It’s definitely hard with a calf. I’ve been through that. It’s not an easy injury,” Doncic said Sunday night. “So, we just want him to be healthy. If he’s not ready to come back, don’t come back. But obviously, we’d love to have him out there. We can’t wait for his return.”

Reaves is averaging career-high in points (26.6), assists (6.3) and rebounds (5.2) per game. He is shooting 50.7% from the field.

His outstanding play means Reaves is in line for a big payday. The Lakers can pay him a maximum deal of five years worth about $241 million.

So, yes, Reaves is understandably being cautious.

Trade winds

Dalton Knecht is apparently being used as trade bait by the Lakers.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Two of the players people around the NBA said the Lakers had shown some interest in were traded for each other last week, leaving L.A. still searching for the right move to make … or not to make.

Cleveland traded De’Andre Hunter to the Sacramento Kings for Keon Ellis, two wing players that had been attached to the Lakers as possible candidates to be acquired.

The NBA trade deadline is Thursday at noon PST.

So, the Lakers still have time to do a deal, but people not authorized to speak publicly on the matter say teams have little interest in guards Gabe Vincent and Dalton Knecht, the two most prominent players the Lakers seem to be pushing.

The Lakers do have a first-round draft pick they can attach to one of them, but so far appear hesitant to make it part of a deal.

MSG nostalgia

Was this LeBron James’ final game in Madison Square Garden?

(John Munson / Associated Press)

So, after LeBron James had 22 points, six assists and five rebounds against the Knicks, he was asked if it was weird to think that game the Lakers played the Knicks could be his last time playing in Madison Square Garden.

James, in his 23rd season, has given no indication on when he will retire.

“At the end of the day, everything has to come to an end at some point,” James said. “So, no matter what it is, it’s going to be like, ‘I’ll never play again in Madison Square Garden. I’ll never play again in certain arenas. I’ll never play again, period.’ So, at that point it doesn’t matter. You’re going to always miss it. You’re going to miss the game in general. So this one will always have a special place in the journey because it is Madison Square Garden. But yeah, when that time comes, yeah, for sure.”

On tap

Tuesday at Brooklyn (13-35), 4:30 p.m. PST

The Lakers end their eight-game trip against a Nets team that has the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference. The Nets have lost eight of their last 10 games. Michael Porter Jr. leads the Nets in scoring, averaging 25.6 points per game.

Thursday vs. Philadelphia (27-21), 7 p.m.

Just as the 76ers started to play better and get healthy, Paul George was suspended 25 games without play for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy. But the 76ers still have All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey, who is averaging 29.2 points per game, and center Joel Embiid.

Saturday vs. Golden State (27-23), 5:30 p.m.

It has become one of the more enjoyable moments to see LeBron James and Warriors All-Star guard Stephen Curry, two of the NBA’s elder statesmen still flourishing, perform against each other. But Curry is dealing with a right knee injury, leaving his status unclear.

Status report

Bronny James (left lower leg soreness) is questionable and rookie forward Adou Thiero (right MCL sprain) is out.

Cold, cold, cold

It was pretty cold in New York.

(Adam Gray / Associated Press)

Man, this trip has been a cold one.

Snow in Washington, D.C.

Snow in New York.

Snow when I was in Dallas, which meant it took 12 hours to get home to L.A. because of flight cancellations and delays.

How about this weather report in New York over the weekend — 20 degrees, but feels like 3. So, hearing from friends back home saying they were on the beach in shorts while I was freezing was just mean.

Survey time

It’s a hot topic in our letters basket….. Do you want LeBron James to return to the Lakers next season?

Click here to vote in our survey.

Favorite thing I ate this week

A maritozzo and a latte from illy in Italy.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

Hey, it’s Thuc Nhi here! Ciao from Milan! I made it here after one aborted landing attempt at the Charles de Gaulle airport, which forced me to sprint through the terminal after customs to catch a 70-minute connection that was more like 30 minutes. My bags didn’t catch up, but a maritozzo and a latte from illy made the wait a little sweeter. The Italian cafe chain has a location in the CityLife shopping mall across a park from the Main Press Center and after the traditional first-day Olympic activities of getting my credential validated and getting lost learning the press center layout, I definitely deserved a treat. For more Olympic adventures, you can follow me on Instagram.

In case you missed it

Despite All-Stars’ efforts, Lakers fade vs. Knicks on anniversary of Luka Doncic deal

Lakers star LeBron James named an NBA All-Star for a record 22nd time

‘We want Bronny’: Guard Bronny James shines during Lakers’ ugly loss to Cleveland

Cavaliers court raises safety concerns again as Luka Doncic injures leg

‘Like it was yesterday.’ Lakers lose in emotional return to Cleveland for LeBron James

Caitlin Clark as NBA analyst? Will she talk about praise from Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves’ return?

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at broderick.turner@latimes.com, and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

Think of Mike Buckley as a kind of double agent.

Not the sinister kind, who give away state secrets for money or revenge; Buckley is privy to much lower-level intelligence. But that doesn’t mean it’s not just as valuable to the people involved.

Buckley is the Kings’ goaltender coach and his chief pupil is Darcy Kuemper, who will be playing for Team Canada in the Milan Cortina Olympic hockey tournament. Buckley will be in Milan coaching for Team USA. And if the competition goes to form, Canada and the U.S. will meet in the final.

You can see where this is going.

So would Buckley give up the goods on his NHL goalie if it meant helping his national team win a gold medal?

“I probably have a little bit more insight being with him on a day-to-day basis. But at the end of the day, the players still have to execute,” said Buckley, like Kuemper, a first-time Olympian. “So if I tell someone to shoot somewhere at a certain time or a certain spot, they’re going to have to be able to execute that.”

The answer then is maybe.

Still, that’s a dilemma Buckley will probably never face since Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues, who was spectacular in goal in last year’s Four Nations Face-off, will probably start for Canada in Milan. But with the Kings sending four other players (defenseman Drew Doughty, Canada; and forwards Adrian Kempe, Sweden; Kevin Fiala, Switzerland; and Joel Armia, Finland) plus Canadian equipment manager Darren Granger to the Olympics, there’s a good chance guys who have shared a dressing room since September will be competing against one another.

Kings forward Kevin Fiala controls the puck while playing for Team Switzerland at the 2025 world championships.

(Michael Campanella / Getty Images)

The same goes for the Ducks, who are sending four players — goalie Lukas Dostal and defenseman Radko Gudas, Czechia; forward Mikael Granlund, Finland; and defenseman Jackson LaCombe, U.S. — to Milan. Ducks star Leo Carlsson, who was expected to start for Sweden, will miss the Games after undergoing surgery to repair a rare injury in his left thigh last month.

So while the Olympics may bring countries together, it also has the potential to turn teammates against one another — at least temporarily.

In the group stage of the tournament, for example, Armia and Finland will play against Kempe’s Sweden. And Canada, with Kuemper and Doughty, will face Switzerland, which is led by Fiala.

“It’s obviously going to be a little strange,” Gudas said. “It’s only for a few games. For that amount of time, you can put things aside a little bit.”

Those kinds of match-ups were rare in the last two Olympic tournaments since NHL players didn’t take part, sidelined by a dispute over insurance, travel costs and scheduling issues. This year 147 NHL players are on the 12 Olympic rosters, with all 32 NHL clubs represented.

Not all the top NHL players will be in Milan, however. Russia has been banned from the tournament because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, meaning Alexander Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer, won’t play.

Granlund, who won a bronze medal with Finland in 2014, the last time NHL players participated in the Olympics, is glad to be back.

“It was such a cool experience,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest honors I can have as a hockey player, playing for a country in the Olympics. There’s no player in the NHL who wouldn’t go.”

That’s due in large part to the rush that comes with wearing your country’s colors on your chest.

“It’s tough to explain how much it means,” he said. “You grow up in a country like Finland, watching the national team play. As a kid you’re dreaming to play for that team.

“Every single time you put that jersey on, it’s such a pride you feel.”

Doughty, who already has two gold medals, agreed, saying the only time he sings along with the Canadian anthem is at the Olympics.

Kings defenseman Drew Doughty controls the puck while playing for Canada in the Four Nations Face-Off last year.

(Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

“When we hear it in the NHL, I’m not singing,” he said. “But when you’re wearing a Canadian jersey, that’s one of the biggest moments you can have.”

Not just for the guys on the ice. Granger, the equipment manager, will be making his third trip to the Olympics with Canada. And the journey never gets old.

“It’s not something that you apply for. It’s something that you’re asked to do,” he said. “So I don’t take that lightly. It’s an honor.”

The equipment managers may have the most difficult job in the Olympic hockey tournament since they must prepare and maintain the sticks, skates, gloves and uniforms for 25 players, some of whom they’ve never met. That means checking in with the equipment managers of rival NHL teams to get prepared.

“We have quite a few players that are particular about certain things,” he said. “After a while, you just kind of get used to what those things are. If it’s a player that likes to use three sticks a game, then making sure he has that. If it’s a guy that likes to change gloves every other game, making sure you have enough.”

Yet if Canada wins the tournament, Granger’s reward won’t be a gold medal. Olympic rules say medals only go to the players, leaving the equipment managers, trainers and coaches — even coaches with inside information like Buckley — out in the cold.

“That’s OK,” Buckley said. “I just want the players to get one.”

A father driving his daughter and two other families from the Santa Clarita Flyers hockey club to a tournament in Colorado was killed last week in a horrific crash in treacherous weather.

Three days later the Flyers won the Western Girls Hockey League 12U title with a 1-0 victory in overtime Sunday, their fifth win of the tournament.

The players met for two hours the night of the accident and decided they would participate rather than pull out and head home.

“We knew that the families in the crash would want us to play and decided not just to do it for ourselves, but do it for them mostly,” Flyers captain Sophia Boyle told Denver 9News. “We are more than a team. It’s like we are a giant family.

“We knew what we wanted, we tried our hardest and we got it.”

The driver of a Colorado Department of Transportation plow truck traveling on snow-covered and wet roads Thursday morning lost control on Interstate 70, drove through the median and hit the Flyers’ Ford Transit van head-on, according to the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office.

The van was knocked down an icy embankment before coming to rest, and the driver, Manuel Lorenzana of Chatsworth, was pronounced dead at the scene. Four children were treated for minor injuries at a local hospital; a fifth was flown to a trauma center with critical injuries. Three adults were admitted to the hospital, one in serious condition.

Lorenzana, 38, a noted tattoo artist and lifelong San Fernando Valley resident, was remembered as “a hero and the epitome of what an amazing man, father, partner and friend should be,” his family wrote on a GoFundMe page.

“He was the most thoughtful, loving and supportive man to his soulmate April, and the most caring, involved, fun, kind and loving parent, and best friend, to his daughter Brody.”

Brody was released from the hospital and joined her teammates Saturday. After opening the double-elimination tournament with two victories Friday and a loss in their first game Saturday, the Flyers advanced with a 14-0 win.

Santa Clarita Valley residents gathered at the Flyers’ home rink, the Cube Ice and Entertainment Center, to watch a stream of the game that unfortunately malfunctioned. Still, the crowd stayed, with several people refreshing the league’s website to keep up with the game and shouting when the Flyers scored.

Two victories Sunday — both shutouts — gave the Flyers the title. Moments before the championship game, the Flyers raised their sticks in a silent nod to Manny Lorenzana. Khaleesi Bewer scored the winning goal in overtime, and afterward the Flyers sang Katy Perry’s “California Gurls. ”

“It’s unbelievable how much people have rallied behind these girls,” said Prescott Littlefield, president of the Flyers organization. “If there is a silver lining to this, the amount of support they’ve gotten is beyond my ability to comprehend. The families are so grateful.”

If there were any doubt about this being the year of the freshman in high school basketball, all you needed to do was look at who was on the court Saturday in a sold-out rivalry game between Village Christian and visiting Heritage Christian.

“There were five freshmen out there,” Heritage Christian freshman guard Ty Lazenby said.

Make no mistake about how much young talent Heritage Christian has after a 74-71 victory that ended the Crusaders’ 11-game winning streak.

The Warriors (20-6, 6-2) start two freshmen and three sophomores. In high school sports, you never know who’s staying and going each year, but Heritage Christian is feeling good about its group.

“They had to reenroll by yesterday,” coach Paul Tait said.

Said Lazenby: “We’re figuring it out. In two years we’re going to be very good.”

On Saturday, Eli Simmons had 18 points and 13 rebounds, and fellow sophomore Houston Rolle scored 16 points. Lazenby had 15 points. Another freshman, Nalu Clark, the brother of Virginia NCAA champion guard Kihei Clark, had seven points and seven assists.

It was left to sophomore Tyler Jackson to put the finishing touch on the win, banking in a free throw with 11.9 seconds left for a three-point cushion that forced Village Christian’s outstanding freshman, Will Conroy Jr., to shoot a three to tie. It didn’t go.

Conroy finished with 28 points. The Crusaders got into trouble when they failed to get the ball to Conroy earlier, resulting in a turnover and forcing them to foul Jackson.

Village Christian still can win the Olympic League title outright with a win over Maranatha next week. Heritage Christian is rooting for Maranatha to produce a three-way tie for first.

Crespi 57, Harvard-Westlake 52: The Celts advanced to a Tuesday night Mission League tournament semifinal at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame by eliminating Harvard-Westlake, which lost for the third time in its last four games. Isaiah Barnes scored 19 points.

Loyola 60, St. Francis 57: Quincy Watson and Deuce Newt each scored 13 points to help the Cubs keep their playoff hopes alive. They advance to play top-seeded Sierra Canyon on Tuesday in a Mission League tournament semifinal.

Girls’ basketball

Ventura 46, Mater Dei 42: Kai Staniland and Emma Anter each scored 13 points in Ventura’s upset of the Monarchs.

Sierra Canyon 73, Oak Park 46: Jerzy Robinson scored 29 points in a matchup of Open Division teams.

The WNBA and the players union will meet Monday in New York for the first time in weeks to try to move the stalled collective bargaining negotiations forward.

Kelsey Plum, who is vice president of the players union, mentioned the meeting to reporters Friday while preparing for a game in Philadelphia with the Unrivaled three-on-three league.

“We’ll learn a lot from this meeting. I’m not trying to put it on the meeting, but this is a meeting that I think everyone understands what’s at stake,” Plum said. “The league has their timelines; we as players understand what’s at stake. I always come into anything that I do with a great attitude, and I’m going to see the best in this.”

Plum, the former Sparks guard who is an unrestricted free agent, will be joined by other members of the executive council, including Nneka Ogwumike and Napheesa Collier, as well as union leadership.

The league will have its regular negotiating team, including commissioner Cathy Engelbert, the labor relations committee and a few other owners, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.

The person said the league had been asking for the meeting for weeks and it was agreed upon by the union Thursday.

Players said union leadership had been chatting with them frequently.

“Both sides want to get something done, we just got to make moves to get there,” Chicago guard Rachel Banham said. ”It’s got to be an actual negotiation with compromise.”

New York guard Natasha Cloud took a more hardened stance.

“It would be the worst business decision of any business to not literally pay the players that make your business go. Without us, there is no W season,” she said.

Talks to reach a new CBA haven’t had much traction over the last few weeks, as the union says it is waiting for a response to a proposal it sent around Christmas that included a 30% gross revenue share for the players. According to another person familiar with the negotiations, the league didn’t feel that proposal was much different than the previous one the union sent.

That person spoke on condition of anonymity also because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.

The league’s most recent offer last month would guarantee a maximum base salary of $1 million that could reach $1.3 million through revenue sharing. That’s up from the current $249,000 and could grow to nearly $2 million over the life of the agreement, the person told the Associated Press.

The two sides have been in a “status quo” period after the latest extension of the CBA ran out Jan. 9. They agreed to a moratorium a few days later that halted the initial stages of free agency in which teams would seek to deliver qualifying offers and franchise tag designations to players.

If a new CBA isn’t agreed upon soon, it could delay the start of the season. It’s already delayed the expansion draft for Toronto and Portland. The league did release its schedule last week with the regular season set to begin May 8.

The last CBA was announced in the middle of January 2020, a month after it was agreed to. It easily could take two months from when a new CBA is reached to get to the start of free agency, which was supposed to begin Sunday.

Feinberg writes for the Associated Press.

Welcome back to The Times’ Lakers newsletter, where we are all packing our bags.

The team is in the midst of the eight-game Grammy trip. I am getting ready to jet off to Milan to cover my second Winter Olympics. While we call Brad Turner off the bench to pilot the newsletter for the next month, the Lakers are facing their own lineup decisions:

Bench boost

Rarely would JJ Redick tolerate a player taking a midrange shot out of a particular out-of-bounds play. But when Rui Hachimura is playing this way, the Lakers coach will make an exception.

Hachimura is coming off his two best games since returning from a calf injury that sidelined him for two weeks. Against Dallas, he had a block, a season-high eight rebounds and 17 points while drilling two clutch three-pointers in the fourth quarter. Two days later in Chicago, he was one point shy of his season high with 23 points, hitting nine of 11 shots from the field and four of five from three.

Hachimura is rediscovering his early season form that had Redick comparing parts of the Japanese forward’s game to “prime Michael Jordan.” But Hachimura may not be in line to immediately reprise his starting role.

Despite the end of his minutes restriction, Hachimura has remained on the bench to begin games. With the Lakers winning four of their last five games, Hachimura is learning to thrive in any situation.

“Coming off the bench, the game is already going,” Hachimura said. “… So I kind of know how important [it is] to kind of be extra aggressive [more] than usual.”

Because of injuries to their stars, the Lakers’ first-choice starting lineup of Hachimura, LeBron James, Deandre Ayton, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves has only played 85 minutes together in seven games. It’s minus-29 in that small sample size. The lineup with Reaves sidelined and Hachimura limited — James, Ayton and Doncic with Marcus Smart and Jake LaRavia — was, before Monday’s game, already the team’s most-used group with 165 minutes together. It’s minus-1.

The starting group will change again no matter Hachimura’s role as Reaves is inching closer to his return. The team expects him to be back during this trip. It could be as soon as Thursday’s game in Cleveland. Keeping defense-minded players such as Smart and LaRavia with the starters has helped balance the lineups. The Lakers bench was never going to be particularly explosive, giving Hachimura potentially more offensive value with the second group.

Coaches were lauding Hachimura for his ability to stay engaged and hit big shots earlier this season even if he went long stretches without touching the ball. Now Hachimura has had 10 or more shot attempts in five consecutive games for the first time since March 2024. Redick said the team is making sure to get Hachimura involved with specific plays coming out of timeouts. Hachimura said that hasn’t happened for him during his tenure with the Lakers before.

“I think it’s working,” Hachimura said.

Onlookers tend to fixate on starting lineups. Players and coaches like to stress who closes games more. Hachimura is delivering in the clutch moments: He played 42 minutes and six seconds in the fourth quarters against the Nuggets, Clippers, Mavericks and Bulls, the third-most fourth-quarter minutes on the team during that stretch behind Smart (42 minutes, 37 seconds) and James (42 minutes, 15 seconds).

“Nobody’s going to care if you were a starter or came off the bench at the end of the season or at the end of your career,” Redick said. “Just be a good basketball player. He’s a good basketball player.”

Every metric of Hachimura’s production will be scrutinized this offseason as he becomes a free agent. Despite what moving to the bench could mean for Hachimura’s next contract, he doesn’t appear fazed as long as the Lakers can keep counting wins: four in their last five.

“Winning is gonna help,” Hachimura said after the loss to the Clippers. “I think we focus on ourselves sometimes. But I think at the end of the day, it is just winning. That’s gonna help us, everybody. So we gotta focus on that and everything’s gonna come.”

Charged up

Luka Doncic points after taking a charge from Dallas’ Cooper Flagg earlier this season.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Luka Doncic’s balletic step-through to beat a double team and layup a soft finger roll was the offensive dagger that slayed his former team. But the NBA’s leading scorer got the biggest reaction from his defense nine seconds later when he stepped in front of Naji Marshall and ended up flat on his back in the key.

“I enjoyed the charge more,” Doncic told reporters in Dallas with a satisfied smirk.

Still laying flat on his back under the basket, Doncic’s eyes widened as he screamed toward the Lakers’ bench. His teammates pumped their fists and signaled for an offensive foul.

Consistently attacked by opponents on defense, Doncic delivered six consecutive stops in the fourth quarter against the Mavericks when he was the primary defender, coach JJ Redick said, including the energy-boosting charge. Doncic’s 10 charges drawn are already the most of his career, eclipsing the eight he recorded during his rookie season with the Mavericks.

Doncic’s selfless defense has helped put the Lakers on top of the league in charges drawn with 41 (0.93 per game). The next closest team, the Golden State Warriors, has 29.

The Lakers were also among the league’s best last year in drawing charges, ranking second with 0.62 charges per game, but the addition of Marcus Smart has brought a significant boost. The former defensive player of the year has an NBA-high 14 charges drawn.

“Anticipation,” Smart said of how he puts himself in position to get the timely calls. “Timing is everything. … And just making sure [you have] the confidence being there. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don’t. You’d rather be there and get a foul call and not be there and not get anything. It definitely takes some timing, but my teammates do a good job of funneling their guys to the right spot that I’m gonna be in and they know where I’m gonna be. Just make sure I’m in my spot.”

Austin Reaves and Doncic each have 10, tied for the second-most on the Lakers. Even Dalton Knecht stepped in front of Zion Williamson this season to draw the first charge of his career. He followed it with another charge the very next night against San Antonio.

On tap

Wednesday at Cavaliers (28-20), 4 p.m. PST

Cleveland has won five of its last six games after an underwhelming start to the season amid injury concerns for star guard Darius Garland. Garland, averaging 18 points in just 26 game appearances, could miss Wednesday’s game with a right big toe sprain.

Friday at Wizards (10-34), 4 p.m. PST

The Wizards have lost nine in a row. Trae Young (quad) hasn’t played since he was traded to Washington last month. Second-year center Alex Sarr is oen of the bright spots for the team as he leads the league in blocks with 2.1 per game.

Sunday at Knicks (27-18), 4 p.m. PST

The NBA Cup champions were spiraling with nine losses in 11 games between Dec. 31 and Jan. 19, but stabilized themselves with a 54-point win over Brooklyn and a gritty road win against Philadelphia. Jalen Brunson leads with 28 points and 6.1 assists per game while Karl-Anthony Towns leads the league in rebounding with 11.4 per game.

Status report

Austin Reaves: left calf strain

Reaves is progressing back to on-court work now that he’s passed the four-week mark. After beginning with three-on-three games and stay-ready games against coaches and staff members, Reaves is expected to return fully on this trip that ends Feb. 3 in Brooklyn.

Adou Thiero: right knee sprain

The rookie forward is in the final week of his initial four-week timeline since his injury was announced on New Year’s Eve.

Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Olympics

This 5-foot-2 reporter will be sidelined from Lakers coverage for four weeks while on assignment at the Milan Cortina Olympics. My colleague Brad Turner will take over the starting newsletter writer spot.

Favorite thing I ate this week

Plov: Seasoned rice with lamb.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

This meal goes out to Saprarmurat, the Uber driver who picked me up at O’Hare in the midnight hours of Monday morning and the first person I’ve ever met from Kyrgyzstan. The cuisine is a combination of Eastern European and Central Asian and wholly delicious. The first two dishes he suggested were plov and manty, so I followed his lead when I found Euro Asia Restaurant near downtown Chicago. Plov is a seasoned rice dish with lamb and manty are steamed dumplings stuffed with diced lamb and onions. I walked a mile in single-degree weather for this meal and would do it many times over.

Manty: Steamed dumplings stuffed with diced lamb and onions

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

In case you missed it

Luka Doncic scores 33 and remains unbeaten against Mavericks in Lakers comeback

LeBron James downplays reported rift with Jeanie Buss: ‘It’s always been respect’

Lakers admit thinking about contracts, LeBron calls for changes after loss to Clippers

Lakers’ Luka Doncic named NBA All-Star Game starter, LeBron James waits for reserve call

‘He’s a very important guy.’ Deandre Ayton enters exclusive Lakers club during win

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at thucnhi.nguyen@latimes.com, and please consider subscribing if you like our work!