Luka Doncic's injury status and update ahead of Lakers vs. Trail Blazers on Feb. 20

Luka Doncic and his injury management following the NBA All-Star break has been a key story to follow for the Los Angeles Lakers. The organization clearly wants to take good care of the newest superstar donning purple and gold.

Doncic made his debut for the Lakers ahead of the league's midseason break, matching up against the Utah Jazz on Feb. 10. The Slovenian superstar has since added two more games with his new team under his belt, facing the Jazz once more before the All-Star festivities and then matching up against the Charlotte Hornets last night on Feb. 19.

The contest against the Hornets was Doncic's first game game without a minutes restriction. After playing under 25 minutes in his first two games as a member of the Lakers, JJ Redick finally decided to pull the plug on the cautionary approach. However, Los Angeles are clearly still looking to protect Doncic wherever possible.

Luka Doncic will rest in back-to-back, gear up for big-time matchup on Saturday

It was confirmed earlier today by Lakers insider Jovan Buha that Doncic would not be playing in tonight's matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers. The Lakers superstar has been listed as out with left calf injury management.

This is undoubtedly the sensible move for the Lakers and the expected one based on previous reports from Marc Stein.

The Lakers have struggled in their last two games that Doncic has played, losing two matchups to subpar opponents (the Jazz and Hornets). Even with that fact, there was no sound reasoning to the idea of pushing Luka into playing this game against the 23-32 Blazers.

This feels especially true when looking ahead at the upcoming schedule for the Lakers. Saturday night features a big-time matchup against the dreaded Denver Nuggets. Los Angeles will then host Doncic's former team, the Dallas Mavericks, at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday night.

If there was a matchup where Luka could secure some PTO, it was this one.