DALLAS – Luka Dončić traveled to Europe on Sunday to receive aggressive treatment on his injured hamstring in an effort to speed up his recovery, league sources told The Athletic.
Dončić suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain Thursday in the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The team ruled him out for only the rest of the regular season, though Grade 2 strains generally take multiple weeks, and in some cases more than a month, to heal.
Can confirm Luka Dončić will seek medical treatment in Europe in a hope to try and quicken his return from a Grade 2 hamstring strain, per his agency.
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) April 6, 2026
The playoffs begin in two weeks.
“I just know that he’s gonna do everything he can to try to be back,” coach JJ Redick said pregame Sunday. “I talked to him Friday. I talked to him again yesterday. I talked to him again this morning. He’s going to go through all the necessary things to be back at some point, and it’s our job again to extend the season so both those guys can get back.”
Shortly after learning the Lakers would be without Dončić, the team announced Austin Reaves would also miss the rest of the regular season with a Grade 2 oblique strain — another injury generally with a timeline of four to six weeks.
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The Lakers lost their first game without their leading scorers Sunday in Dallas, falling 134-128 to the Mavericks. LeBron James led the Lakers with 30 points and 15 assists. Guard Marcus Smart remained out with ankle soreness — the seventh straight game he has missed.
Pregame Sunday, Redick said internal medical data showed no signs of overuse with Dončić before the game with the Thunder. While he grabbed at his hamstring in the first half, he was medically cleared to return to the game. Minutes into the third quarter, Dončić crumpled to the ground after planting his left leg, again reaching for the hamstring.
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Reaves, also, was put back in the game after suffering his initial injury.
“We — as a coach, you go on the information you have. He was medically cleared. When Austin came back, I asked directly. I thought he was hurt. (I was told), ‘No, he’s medically cleared.’ The group wanted to go for it in the second half. Talked about it at halftime,” Redick said. “And I think, for both those guys, the nature of playing heavy minutes, that’s certainly a part of, like any equation when you’re trying to manage workloads. We also rely on the tracking data, and we’re looking at that after every game. You know, acceleration, jumps, workload, all of those things.
“And there have been a few times this year where it’s gone, away from the standard deviation of whatever their baseline is, and we make the proper adjustments. There was, there was nothing leading into that game that would suggest either those guys were ‘running hot,’ as we call it.”
Redick said both Dončić and Reaves will try to return in the playoffs, calling it the Lakers’ “job to extend the season so that they can come back.”