In early April, with just five games remaining in the regular season, the Los Angeles Lakers announced that star guard Luka Doncic would be sidelined at least until the NBA playoffs.

Doncic’s setback was a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, an MRI confirmed. The reigning NBA scoring champion sustained the injury during an April 2 game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers also entered the playoffs without another key member of their backcourt, Austin Reaves.

The shorthanded Lakers upset the Houston Rockets in the opening game of their first-round Western Conference series Saturday. Ahead of Game 2 on Tuesday, the Lakers reportedly received a clearer update on the health of at least one of their injured stars.

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Reaves, who was diagnosed with an oblique strain, appears to be progressing toward a return later in the first-round series if it extends to six or seven games. If the Lakers advance sooner, he could be on track to return for the Western Conference semifinals.

According to ESPN, Reaves recently returned to the practice court for 1-on-1 drills. The 27-year-old will still need to progress to 2-on-3 and then 5-on-5 work before he can be cleared for playoff action, but he appears significantly further along than Doncic, who remains out indefinitely.

Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers controls the ball against the Orlando Magic at the Kia Center on March 21, 2026. (Nathan Ray Seebeck/Imagn Images)

Doncic is unlikely to play in the first round, regardless of the series length. ESPN footage showed him on the practice court on Tuesday, though the six-time All-Star was not doing high-intensity work.

2025-26 NBA PLAYOFF ODDS: SPREADS, LINES FOR FIRST-ROUND SERIES

The Rockets, despite being widely favored in the opening round playoffs series, also contended with key injuries. Kevin Durant missed Game 1 with a knee contusion. He was cleared to play in Game 2 on Tuesday night.

Houston Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. shoots the ball against the Lakers during Game 1 in the NBA playoffs at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, on April 18, 2026. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)

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LeBron James scored 19 points, while Luke Kennard led Los Angeles with 27 in Saturday’s win.

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Ugly scenes marred the end of Tuesday’s AFC Champions League Elite semifinal between Machida Zelvia of Japan and United Arab Emirates’ Shabab Al Ahli — and it was perhaps understandable why the latter were infuriated by the manner in which they had just been eliminated from Asian football’s premier club competition.

Shabab Al Ahli’s hopes of becoming champions of Asia had just come to an end in the penultimate stage of the tournament with a 1-0 loss, but they were adamant that tie should have been headed for extra-time after their 92nd-minute equaliser was disallowed.

The U.A.E side immediately remonstrated with referee Shaun Evans. Then once more at the final whistle, where the Australian official eventually required a police escort off the field as he was surrounded by a mob of seething Shabab Al Ahli players.

Peculiarly, and perhaps for the first time ever, it was a substitution that led to VAR intervention which prompted Evans to overturn his original decision of letting Guilherme Bala‘s brilliant solo effort stand.

So, what exactly caused the controversy?

After Machida had seemingly made their fifth and final substitution of the tie, they immediately started making appeals to Evans the moment Shabab Al Ahli restarted play from a throw-in — although the reason behind those were initially unclear.

Shabab Al Ahli worked the way from one flank to the other, where Bala embarked on a dazzling 40-yard run and proceeded to skip inside two opponents before unleashing an unstoppable effort in the far corner.

It sparked wild scenes of celebration in the Shabab Al Ahli camp but, almost immediately, Machida continued their pleas to Evans.

And when VAR — upon conducting its mandatory check — called Evans to the pitch-side monitor, things became clearer.

As Machida’s Hotaka Nakamura was still on the field of play, briefly exchanging words with the man who was about to replace him in Henry Heroki Mochizuki, Shabab Al Ahli defender Kauan Santos had already thrown the ball back into play.

It then goes down to the minute details. Nakamura was as good as off the field with one foot almost on the touchline. Barely a second later, Mochizuki was charging onto the pitch.

It initially appeared that Evans had not sensed anything was amiss because of such a fine margin. And the rules are the rules.

Machida will defend the decision by arguing they were — quite blatantly — unprepared for the restart, especially considering he was replacing Nakamura at right-wingback — down the exact side where Bala produced his moment of magic.

Still, even if it had been a legal restart, he probably might not have made it to his designated position considering he had the entire width of the field to cover. Indeed, when Bala’s shot hit the back of the net, Mochizuki had only made it as far as the middle of the box — filling in the central role that was vacated by captain Gen Shoji‘s own covering of the aforementioned void down the right.

Obviously, teams are not obliged to wait till their opponents are completely ready — and in their designated positions — after substitutions. In the grand scheme of things, Bala would probably still have scored even if Shabab Al Ahli had waited that extra second before restarting play. The fact of the matter is they didn’t.

But here’s where it gets even more intriguing. Evans’ whistle could be heard being blown, calling for play to be restarted. Whether or not it came before or after Santos’ throw-in is — again — so marginal that it is a difficult to determine in real-time.

This bit is purely conjecture but, at the juncture of the game when teams are often suspected of bringing on players to take time of the clock, and with Machida taking a bit of time to complete their substitution, he may have — in an attempt to force the Japanese team to get on with the game — called for Shabab Al Ahli to continue proceedings.

So, when VAR decided that there was a serious missed incident that warranted an on-field review, it is quite possible that it was one that had actually been instigated by Evans himself. Even then, if he had decided to restart play prematurely because Machida were wasting time, then wouldn’t he have been well within his rights to stick by his original decision?

After all, there is no law in the game that decrees both teams must have 11 players on the pitch for the game to go on. Even discounting the scenario of sending-offs, numerical discrepancies are commonplace when players require medical treatment off the field.

Expectedly, Shabab Al Ahli coach Paulo Sousa — who vacated his dugout for the remainder of the contest after the disallowed goal — was indignant after the game.

“There was a goal that was scored and then it was cancelled — this is a very technical mistake by ⁠the referee,” said Sousa. “Unfortunately, this is what is turning football into rubble. It was a big mistake to choose this referee for this match.

“What saddens me is the organisation [the Asian Football Confederation] choosing referees who aren’t up to the quality of this tournament, these players, and the coaches present.”

“We deserved to be in the final and we deserve to play this important game.”

Of course, nothing can now change the outcome of the contest. It is Machida who are moving on to Saturday’s decider — a story in itself considering this is their tournament debut and they were still in the second tier of Japanese football as recently as in 2023.

Nonetheless, Shabab Al Ahli are well within their rights to be aggrieved that they did not at least have extra-time, or even penalties, to pull off a victory of their own.

Not for the first time, VAR has courted controversy. But perhaps for the first time, over a substitution.

All-rounder Muhammad Nawaz on Wednesday tested positive for recreational drug use. The development has put him under the scanner of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

The 32-year-old all-rounder, who is currently representing Multan Sultans in the ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL) 11, was reportedly flagged during testing conducted at the T20 World Cup earlier this year.

A PCB spokesperson confirmed that the matter has been formally taken up after communication from the International Cricket Council (ICC).

“The ICC has informed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) about this matter, and the PCB has begun the due process.

The results of this process will be communicated to the ICC today,” the spokesperson stated.

As a result, he will no longer be able to play for Surrey for England’s T20 Blast.

Nawaz, who has represented Pakistan in 98 T20 internationals, is currently playing for Multan Sultans in the ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL) season.