{"id":696026,"date":"2026-04-03T15:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696026\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T15:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:22:16","slug":"luka-doncic-hamstring-injury-to-test-lakers-depth-on-eve-of-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696026\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic hamstring injury to test Lakers’ depth on eve of playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OKLAHOMA CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0In the aftermath of their worst loss of the season<\/a>, few Lakers<\/a> players or coaches had spoken to Luka Doncic<\/a> after he limped off the court in the third quarter Thursday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Austin Reaves<\/a> didn\u2019t know the extent of Doncic\u2019s hamstring injury, but he knew how the Lakers superstar would approach the latest hurdle in this winding season. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a competitor,\u201d Reaves said of Doncic, \u201cso he\u2019ll do all he can do to put himself in a position to come back when he can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doncic will undergo an MRI on Friday on the left hamstring injury he suffered in a 43-point loss to the Thunder. He already missed four games before the All-Star break with the same injury, but the Lakers withheld expectations on his status for the final five regular-season games. <\/p>\n

After Sunday\u2019s game in Dallas, the Lakers face the Thunder at home Tuesday, play consecutive games at Golden State on Thursday and against Phoenix at home Friday and finish the regular season Sunday against Utah.<\/p>\n

Doncic\u2019s injury left the Lakers backcourt extra shorthanded Thursday as Marcus Smart<\/a> missed his sixth consecutive game Thursday. The veteran guard could return against Dallas, coach JJ Redick<\/a> said. He has been day-to-day since injuring his right ankle against Orlando on March 21.<\/p>\n

If Smart is unable to return in Doncic\u2019s absence, the Lakers could shift even more ball-handling responsibility to Reaves and LeBron James<\/a> while relying on Bronny James<\/a> as an additional guard off the bench. The 21-year-old James has played in five consecutive games, tying his longest stretch of his second pro season. <\/p>\n

The Lakers (50-27) are already guaranteed a top-six seed in the Western Conference, but are still jostling for seeding. They have a one-game lead for the No. 3 seed over No. 4 Denver, which is on a seven-game winning streak. <\/p>\n

Approaching the end of the regular season, the Lakers looked at Thursday\u2019s game against the defending NBA champions as a test, forward Jake LaRavia said. They were 15-2 in March with 13 wins in their last 14 games. The Lakers were playing like an evolved form of the team that lost by 29 to the Thunder in Oklahoma City in November<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But like that first rout, Thursday\u2019s featured a flurry of Lakers turnovers, suffocating Oklahoma City ball pressure and an efficient masterclass from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis close to the end of the season, we would\u2019ve wanted it not to go that way,\u201d said LaRavia, who had six points and a team-high eight rebounds Thursday. \u201cIt was pretty much the same story, I feel like, the first time we played here this year.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Lakers built much of their March success on successful revenge performances. They bounced back after previous losses to the New York Knicks, Houston Rockets and the Orlando Magic. They lost by seven to the Nuggets on March 5 then responded with nine consecutive wins, their longest winning streak of the season, including an overtime thriller against Denver that clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker that could factor into the tight standings. <\/p>\n

Redick praised his team\u2019s \u201cplayoff mentality\u201d during the run. It was also when the team was largely its healthiest. <\/p>\n

Doncic had played all but one game since the All-Star break. Reaves, who missed six weeks with a calf injury this season, has started in 22 consecutive games. When James returned from an elbow injury, the star trio found a clear hierarchy that lifted the team to new heights. <\/p>\n

Doncic, who became just the 10th player in NBA history to score 600 points in a single month, is the \u201chead of the snake,\u201d said James, who is averaging just 12.3 shots in the last 12 games but is shooting 54.4% from the field. Doncic\u2019s brilliant March unified the team behind his most valuable player push<\/a>, his thrilling shot-making and even his smiling dunk against Washington<\/a>. <\/p>\n

With the team exuding the type of joy that often characterizes Doncic\u2019s game, James believes the Lakers can maintain their momentum despite Doncic\u2019s uncertain status and a deflating loss. <\/p>\n

\u201cNothing is rattled,\u201d James said. \u201cIt\u2019s one game, it\u2019s part of the NBA season, it\u2019s the defending champions. We get it. We understand.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0In the aftermath of their worst loss of the season, few Lakers players or coaches had spoken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[87639,1013,35445,7,142,15164,300,368,7246,6,11,1394,179,87640,2084,396,312,184],"class_list":{"0":"post-696026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-21-year-old-james","9":"tag-austin-reaves","10":"tag-bad-loss","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-game","13":"tag-hamstring-injury","14":"tag-lakers","15":"tag-luka-doncic","16":"tag-march","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-nba-playoffs","19":"tag-no","20":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","21":"tag-regular-season-sunday","22":"tag-season","23":"tag-team","24":"tag-thunder","25":"tag-thursday"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116341463061201215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696026","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=696026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}