{"id":1863905,"date":"2026-04-03T14:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1863905"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:19:08","slug":"luka-doncic-has-another-hamstring-injury-what-it-means-for-him-and-the-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1863905","title":{"rendered":"Luka Don\u010di\u0107 has another hamstring injury. What it means for him and the Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 It was all good just a week ago.<\/p>\n

On the final Friday of March, the Los Angeles Lakers were preparing to play their first home game after a successful six-game road trip. All-Star point guard Luka Don\u010di\u0107, who dominated during the trip as the Lakers won five of those games, was listed as questionable against the visiting Brooklyn Nets due to left hamstring soreness. He played through the injury, scoring 41 points in 39 minutes against a tanking Nets team, picking up a suspension-inducing technical foul in the process.<\/p>\n

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Don\u010di\u0107 could have rested against the Nets and had four days off, or five if he didn\u2019t play in the front end of the back-to-back at home against the Washington Wizards. Instead, he served his one-game suspension Monday against the Wizards, returning Tuesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Don\u010di\u0107 had a slightly lighter night in a blowout win, but it probably should have been even shorter. Despite a 27-point lead against a Cavaliers team that played the previous night in another time zone, Don\u010di\u0107 was needed for three more fourth-quarter minutes, hitting a 3-pointer to reach 40 points and finishing his fourth dunk of the season: Forty-two points in 34 minutes to cap a 600-point March for Don\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n

Hindsight is 20\/20. But Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s left hamstring injury Thursday<\/a>, suffered in the third quarter of a 139-96 road loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, wasn\u2019t exactly a fluke. Don\u010di\u0107 played through pain in the first quarter. The Lakers knew he was affected enough by the injury that he had to be evaluated at halftime, when Oklahoma City led by 31 points.<\/p>\n

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Thursday was a trifecta of bad events for the Lakers<\/a>: Don\u010di\u0107 played poorly (12 points, 3-of-10 shooting overall, 1-of-7 on 3s, six turnovers); he got injured; and his team was blown out for the first time since the Boston Celtics beat them in Los Angeles 111-89 on Feb. 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel really bad for him,\u201d said OKC\u2019s Jalen Williams, who was guarding Don\u010di\u0107 when he got injured and has his own history of hamstring ailments. \u201cIt\u2019s very spooky in a way to see it happen to him, and I\u2019m the one guarding him. So that was a weird play. I didn\u2019t even want to take off \u2014 I think he lost the ball. I could have taken off with the ball, tried to let it go out of bounds and give them time to figure it out, just because that injury sucks. So I wish him a speedy recovery, hopefully it\u2019s not anything serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Lakers\u2019 priority moving forward is their superstar\u2019s playoff availability. Don\u010di\u0107, who would fall just short of the 65-game threshold for end-of-season awards if he didn\u2019t play again in the regular season, is scheduled to have an MRI on Friday. The first round of the NBA playoffs begins in a little more than two weeks. How do the Lakers proceed while Don\u010di\u0107 deals with what could be an extended absence?<\/p>\n

L.A. enters Friday with a 50-27 record, third in the Western Conference but just 3 1\/2 games ahead of the sixth-place Minnesota Timberwolves. The remaining five Lakers games this regular season are at Dallas after two days off, home against the Thunder again, a back-to-back that begins on the road in Golden State before hosting the Phoenix Suns and the finale at home against the Utah Jazz. Those games will provide the Lakers with time to figure out how to play again without Don\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n

On Monday, when Don\u010di\u0107 was suspended, Austin Reaves started at point guard next to LeBron James at small forward, along with center Deandre Ayton and fill-in starters Jake LaRavia and Rui Hachimura; starter Marcus Smart remains day-to-day with an ankle contusion and hasn\u2019t played since his game-winning assist to Luke Kennard on March 21 in Orlando.<\/p>\n

Reaves appears to be dealing with a hip injury; he was listed as questionable for the Orlando game due to to left hip soreness, but he has played 24 consecutive games. James is 41 years old and has had to make a series of adjustments to work alongside Don\u010di\u0107 and Reaves.<\/p>\n

Once Smart returns, the Lakers have to make a decision about starting LaRavia or Hachimura alongside James, Reaves and Ayton. Los Angeles should have enough offense if Hachimura is reintroduced to the starting lineup; LaRavia would be the better defensive option, though he isn\u2019t close to the shooting threat that Hachimura is. The Lakers have also been playing Bronny James in the rotation over Jarred Vanderbilt; Bronny offers ballhandling the Lakers have missed without Smart and will miss even more without Don\u010di\u0107, though having the 21-year-old play at the expense of Vanderbilt has been a curious decision given Vanderbilt\u2019s value as a defender with size.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
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\n Bronny James helps Lakers win alongside father LeBron: \u2018He belongs\u2019\n <\/div>\n
\n It was no gimmick, the two playing alongside one another \u2014 it was another stage in a remarkable comeback that people often forget about.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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As much as Don\u010di\u0107 earned rave reviews for his improved conditioning, both before the season and throughout as he played at an All-NBA level, he has not escaped soft tissue injuries, most notably the left calf strain suffered in his final game with the Dallas Mavericks on Christmas 2024 that cost him nearly seven weeks. While he has avoided a similar injury to this point, Thursday was the third game of the season that Don\u010di\u0107 left a game prematurely due to injury.<\/p>\n

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In the 13 games that Don\u010di\u0107 has missed this season, the Lakers are 7-6. Los Angeles is 4-2 in the games Don\u010di\u0107 missed that James and Reaves both played (wins at Toronto and home against Warriors, Mavericks and Wizards; losses at Phoenix and against the Thunder). When the Lakers had Reaves play without James or Don\u010di\u0107, they were 2-2 (wins at Sacramento and Minnesota, losses against the Trail Blazers and at Boston). The Lakers lost in Portland in January when Don\u010di\u0107 was out with groin soreness and James played without Don\u010di\u0107 and Reaves. And the Lakers split the two games that they played without any of their big three (a win at Portland in November and a loss in February at home to the Spurs).<\/p>\n

The Lakers got a rude awakening Thursday in Oklahoma City. It helps to have a month like March to cushion the blow, and Don\u010di\u0107 was the driving force of that. But the Lakers need to prioritize getting Don\u010di\u0107 healthy, consider giving Reaves and James a day to rest as well \u2014 either in Dallas or in Golden State \u2014 prepare for the Thunder again and use the final week of the season to fine-tune their play in preparation for the playoffs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 It was all good just a week ago. On the final Friday of March, the Los Angeles Lakers were preparing to play their first home game after a successful six-game road trip. All-Star point guard Luka Don\u010di\u0107, who dominated during the trip as the Lakers won five of those games, was listed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1863905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1863905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1863905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1863905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1863905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}