{"id":542835,"date":"2026-01-17T14:15:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/542835\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T14:15:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:15:32","slug":"is-luka-doncic-playing-tonight-injury-status-for-lakers-trail-blazers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/542835\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Luka Doncic playing tonight? Injury status for Lakers-Trail Blazers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a> will be unavailable for the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> on Saturday, Jan. 17.<\/p>\n

The Lakers star has left groin soreness and will be out for the road game against the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a>, the team announced Friday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Don\u010di\u0107 injured his groin<\/a> while warming up before a game against the Sacramento Kings<\/a> on Monday. He’d managed to play in the three games since the injury, with the team going 1-2 during that stretch.<\/p>\n

He is one of three players who have been ruled out for Los Angeles, along with Austin Reaves (left calf strain) and Adou Thiero (right MCL sprain).<\/p>\n

1 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

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1 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

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2 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Washington Wizards’ Cam Whitmore dunks the ball against the Charlotte Hornets at Capital One Arena.<\/p>\n

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3 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Brooklyn Nets’ Michael Porter Jr. dunks in front of the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama at Frost Bank Center.<\/p>\n

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4 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 25: The Denver Nuggets’ Christian Braun dunks the ball against the Phoenix Suns’ Grayson Allen at Ball Arena.<\/p>\n

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5 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 24: The Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. dunks against the Miami Heat at FedExForum.<\/p>\n

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6 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 24: The Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo dunks over the Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. at FedExForum.<\/p>\n

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7 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 22: The New York Knicks’ OG Anunoby goes up for a reverse dunk against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

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8 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 22: The Utah Jazz’s Lauri Markkanen dunks against the Los Angeles Clippers at Delta Center.<\/p>\n

Luka Don\u010di\u0107 stats<\/p>\n

Don\u010di\u0107 has averaged 33.6 points, 8.7 assists and 7.7 rebounds per game in 32 games played this season. He ranks first in points and fourth in assists this season.<\/p>\n

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Who is Luka Don\u010di\u0107’s backup?<\/p>\n

Kobe Bufkin is listed as the primary backup behind Don\u010di\u0107 at point guard, according to ESPN. Bufkin has averaged 1.5 points and two rebounds per game. Gabe Vincent would also be considered. He’s averaged 5.1 points and 1.4 assists per game in just 19 games this season, averaging 20.1 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

When do Lakers play next?<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> will play the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 10 p.m. ET (7 p.m. PT). The game will be played at the Moda Center in Portland.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Luka Doncic injury update: Will Lakers star play vs Blazers tonight?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luka Don\u010di\u0107 will be unavailable for the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday, Jan. 17. The Lakers star has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[3515,1013,7,601,370,2822,251,150,368,6,687,471,3967,819,477,1617],"class_list":["post-542835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-portland-trail-blazers","tag-adou-thiero","tag-austin-reaves","tag-basketball","tag-blazers","tag-gabe-vincent","tag-kobe-bufkin","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-portlandtrailblazers","tag-rebounds-per-game","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-trail-blazers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115910865192738682","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}