{"id":696747,"date":"2026-04-03T23:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T23:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696747\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T23:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T23:04:19","slug":"luka-doncic-will-miss-rest-of-lakers-regular-season-with-hamstring-strain-luka-doncic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696747\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Don\u010di\u0107 will miss rest of Lakers\u2019 regular season with hamstring strain | Luka Don\u010di\u0107"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luka Don\u010di\u0107 will miss the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 regular season with a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring, the team announced Friday.<\/p>\n

Don\u010di\u0107 is the NBA\u2019s top scorer and the driving force behind the Lakers\u2019 surge<\/a> into the third spot in the Western Conference standings, but he injured his leg during Los Angeles\u2019 blowout 139-96 loss to Oklahoma City on Thursday. An MRI exam revealed the severity of the strain.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are 50-27 and have just five games left before the postseason. They travel to Dallas on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Don\u010di\u0107 is putting up spectacular numbers in his first full season with the Lakers, who acquired the Slovenian superstar<\/a> from the Mavericks last season. He is averaging 33.5 points, 8.3 assists and 7.7 rebounds per game for Los Angeles, and he was named the NBA\u2019s Western Conference player of the month for March after racking up 13 consecutive 30-point performances including seven 40-point games.<\/p>\n

He is almost certainly going to win the NBA<\/a> scoring title, but it\u2019s now very possible he doesn\u2019t make the All-NBA team. Don\u010di\u0107 has played 64 games, one shy of the league\u2019s 65-game award eligibility threshold. BetMGM Sportsbook, among others, took Don\u010di\u0107 off the list of MVP betting options after his injury Thursday.<\/p>\n

Grade 2 hamstring strains sometimes require several weeks of recovery, but Don\u010di\u0107 also has prior experience with hamstring issues. He missed four games right before the All-Star break with another left hamstring strain, but returned to the lineup after the break.<\/p>\n

Lakers coach JJ Redick said Don\u010di\u0107 was injured in the first half against the Thunder, but was cleared to return to the game. Don\u010di\u0107 lasted only about four minutes before he spun, stopped and went down on the court in pain, leading to his departure.<\/p>\n

Five of the league\u2019s six highest-paid players this season \u2013 Golden State\u2019s Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, Philadelphia\u2019s Joel Embiid, Milwaukee\u2019s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Boston\u2019s Jayson Tatum \u2013 aren\u2019t eligible for awards because they won\u2019t meet the eligibility threshold. It was collectively bargained, meaning the league and the players association agreed on the terms, and this is the third season of it being part of the NBA rules.<\/p>\n

It applies to player eligibility for five awards: MVP, defensive player of the year, most improved player, the All-NBA Team and the All-Defensive Team. Players have to either play in 65 regular-season games (with some minutes-played minimums in there as well), or at least 62 games before suffering a \u201cseason-ending injury\u201d.<\/p>\n

But even with Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s hamstring hurt badly enough that he\u2019ll miss the rest of the regular season, it wouldn\u2019t be classified as \u201cseason-ending\u201d unless a doctor jointly selected by the NBA and the National Basketball<\/a> Players Association says he wouldn\u2019t be able to play again through 31 May.<\/p>\n

There is a grievance process and even a way to challenge the rule citing extraordinary circumstances, but neither would be easily utilized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luka Don\u010di\u0107 will miss the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 regular season with a Grade 2 strain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-696747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116343280043993699","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696747","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=696747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}