{"id":695890,"date":"2026-04-03T14:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/695890\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:02:17","slug":"luka-doncic-injury-update-lakers-star-to-get-mri-friday-after-hurting-hamstring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/695890\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Don\u010di\u0107 injury update: Lakers star to get MRI Friday after hurting hamstring"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"luka-doncic-getty-22.png\"<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> entered Thursday’s showdown the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> harboring “statement game” aspirations. After rolling through March as one of the NBA’s<\/a> hottest teams, the Lakers had a chance to prove themselves as a true contender against the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed. Instead, they were humbled by the defending champions in a night that went from bad to worse.<\/p>\n

The Thunder raced out to a 9-2 lead before two minutes had even passed, setting the tone for a miserable night for the Lakers. The halftime lead was 31 and Oklahoma City would eventually push the lead into the 40s. But the outcome of a single game can do only so much damage. An injury is another matter entirely. And in the third quarter, Lakers star Luka Don\u010di\u0107 hobbled off of the court with a left hamstring injury that ended his night.<\/p>\n

Don\u010di\u0107 will have an MRI on Friday, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin<\/a>, but the Lakers really don’t have much wiggle room here. The regular season ends in 10 days. The Lakers have just a one-game lead for the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference — seemingly safe with Don\u010di\u0107 and a tiebreaker over Denver, far less so if Don\u010di\u0107 needs to miss games. If the Lakers fall down to No. 4, they’d likey have to face this Thunder team again if they made it to the second round. And of course, if the injury lingers, it could affect Don\u010di\u0107 in the postseason.<\/p>\n

Further, the injury complicates Don\u010di\u0107’s pursuit of his first ever MVP award. Though he has been a heavy underdog to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> all season, Don\u010di\u0107 picked up steam throughout a historic March and could have used Thursday’s head-to-head showdown as a way to pick up some needed momentum. Now he not only lost the game, but potentially his awards eligibility as well. Don\u010di\u0107 has played in 64 games. The threshold for eligibility is 65. Depending on the severity of this injury, Don\u010di\u0107 could go from MVP candidate to missing out an All-NBA spot in a single night.<\/p>\n

Don\u010di\u0107 has nothing material to gain by making an All-NBA Team, of course. By getting traded to the Lakers he lost his chance at supermax eligibility, instead signing a standard max extension last offseason. But March was the best month of Don\u010di\u0107’s career and legitimate MVP shots are rare. Don\u010di\u0107 may have just lost his shot at one.<\/p>\n

As nice as the MVP trophy looks on a mantle, it isn’t the one the Lakers are seeking. If this team is going to meaningfully compete with the Thunder for the Larry O’Brien in June, having a healthy Don\u010di\u0107 is going to be essential. Even with him, they were no match for Oklahoma City on Thursday. It’s hard to imagine a worse outcome for a regular-season game in April. Now the organization holds its breath and awaits the results of Don\u010di\u0107’s MRI on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images The Los Angeles Lakers entered Thursday’s showdown the Oklahoma City Thunder harboring “statement game” aspirations. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,15275,15164,300,150,41948,368,29892,9299,6171,6,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-695890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-hamstring","10":"tag-hamstring-injury","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","13":"tag-luka-doni","14":"tag-luka-doncic","15":"tag-luka-doncic-injury-update","16":"tag-mri","17":"tag-mvp","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116341149791001540","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695890","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=695890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}