DHJ Quick Take<\/p>\n
Double Blow for L.A.: April 2 proved disastrous for the Los Angeles Lakers, featuring a massive 43-point blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder and a left hamstring injury to star Luka Don\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n
Pending Medical Results: Don\u010di\u0107 is scheduled for an MRI to assess the severity of the injury after being forced out of the game in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
LeBron\u2019s Support: LeBron James expressed his concern, noting that such an injury is \u201cthe last thing you want to see\u201d for an MVP candidate this late in the season.<\/p>\n
April 2 was a rough, rough day for the Los Angeles Lakers. Not only did LeBron James<\/a> and Co. get blown out by the Oklahoma City Thunder by 43 points, but Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a> also suffered a left hamstring injury in the third quarter. <\/p>\n Don\u010di\u0107 will undergo an MRI to determine the severity of the injury. James, who is close with Don\u010di\u0107, is hoping for the best. <\/p>\n \u201cAt this point, at this juncture of the season, it\u2019s the last thing you want to see,\u201d James said<\/a> after the Lakers-Thunder game. \u201cWhen you have an MVP candidate on your team, the last thing you want to see is somebody go down with a hamstring injury. So, pray for the best, for sure, and a speedy recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u010di\u0107 played 26 minutes against the Thunder before getting hurt. He finished with 12 points, four rebounds and seven assists while shooting 3-of-10 from the field, 1-of-7 from beyond the arc and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line. <\/p>\n The Lakers dropped to 50-27 after getting destroyed by the Thunder. Don\u010di\u0107 leads the NBA in points and points per game in his first full season with Los Angeles, but he\u2019s probably not going to win MVP anymore after getting outplayed by OKC superstar <\/a>Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>, who had 28 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in 30 minutes.<\/p>\n Los Angeles has five games left in the regular season. James, the oldest active player in the NBA, knows the team will stay together despite getting demolished by OKC. <\/p>\n \u201cNothing has changed,\u201d James said. \u201cWe still will be [together]. Obviously we\u2019ll be tested with the head of the snake [missing]. \u2026 But nothing is rattled. It\u2019s one game, it\u2019s part of the NBA season, it\u2019s the defending champions. We get it. We understand.\u201d<\/p>\n The Lakers have already clinched a playoff berth, so they will be the third, fourth, fifth or sixth seed in the Western Conference playoffs. If Don\u010di\u0107 misses time, James and Austin Reaves<\/a> will have to take their games to another level. <\/p>\n Los Angeles faces the Dallas Mavericks, Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz to close out the regular season. Along with Don\u010di\u0107, Marcus <\/a>Smart\u00a0<\/a>is injured for the Lakers.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s never a time to get comfortable in this league,\u201d James said. \u201cThe only thing we do know is that we won\u2019t be in the play-in, so we have that week. But health is wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DHJ Quick Take Double Blow for L.A.: April 2 proved disastrous for the Los Angeles Lakers, featuring a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-696125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-oklahoma","11":"tag-oklahoma-city","12":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","13":"tag-oklahomacity","14":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","15":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116341695180502872","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696125","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=696125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}