Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic was forced out of his team’s 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night with a strained left hamstring.
Replays show Doncic appears to have tweaked his hamstring late in the first half. After regrouping at halftime, the 27 year old further exacerbated the injury midway through the 3rd quarter while trying to dribble past Thunder forward Jalen Williams.
Doncic would double over in pain and cover his face with his hands along the baseline. After being helped to his feet by teammates, he gingerly made his way back to the locker room and was subsequently ruled out for the remainder of the contest.
The team has been tight lipped since the injury, but Doncic will undergo an MRI on Friday to further evaluate the extent of the strain.
“At this point, at this juncture of the season, it’s the last thing you want to see,” LeBron James told reporters after the contest. “When you have an MVP candidate on your team, the last thing you want to see is somebody go down with a hamstring injury. … So, pray for the best, for sure, and a speedy recovery.”
Currently averaging 33.5pts, 7.7 rebounds, and 8.3 assists per game, Doncic was firmly in the mix for MVP consideration down the homestretch. However, if this injury proves to be an extended absence for the Slovenian superstar, he would fall one game short of the league’s 65 game minimum in order to be considered for postseason awards.
Perhaps more importantly for LA, losing their best player for the final 5 games of the regular season could have a major impact on their playoff seeding as well. As of Friday morning the team occupied the 3rd spot in the tightly packed Western Conference at 50-27.
However, the Denver Nuggets (49-28) are one game behind them, and currently riding a 7 game win streak, while the Rockets and Timberwolves could also theoretically leap frog the Lakers if they were to go on a skid to close out the 2025-26 NBA campaign.
Los Ángeles will play the Dallas, OKC, Golden State, Phoenix, and Utah to close out their season. All 5 of those contests will come in the span of a little over a week, meaning that even a mild strain could keep Doncic out of action for the duration of the regular season.
With a playoff berth already assured, the Lakers would be well served to avoid rushing their star guard back into action. But with home court advantage still on the line, JJ Redick & Co. will be waiting with bated breath for the results of Luka’s scans.
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.