![\"LeBron](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2262744945-e1775502255261.jpg\")
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LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers <\/p>\n
From the moment it happened on Thursday night in Oklahoma City, it was clear that Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> star Luka Doncic<\/a> was going to be out for some time with a hamstring injury. The only question was whether that injury would take him out for a week or two, or whether it would be more like a month. Of course, fans and observers quickly learned it was the latter, and that the team\u2019s fate would come down to the ability of fellow stars Austin Reaves and LeBron James<\/a> to pick up the slack and keep the Lakers alive in the playoffs.<\/p>\n But then, of course, a second wallop of bad news came. It turns out the Lakers knew that Austin Reaves was dealing with some discomfort during the loss to the Thunder<\/a>, and it turns out he has a Grade 2 oblique strain, which will keep him out for the rest of the year and at least the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n So now it is down to James, who is 41 and was only days ago being praised for his embrace of the third-option role, to carry a Lakers team that appears to be swimming upstream as the playoffs near.<\/p>\n LeBron James: \u2018That Was Literally My Tone\u2019<\/p>\n On Sunday, James spoke to reporters for the first time since the injuries to Doncic and Reaves were announced, after the Lakers lost to the Mavericks<\/a> to lose ground in the Western Conference standings. James revealed the shock and deflation he felt at the time. He also revealed his four-letter reaction.<\/p>\n \u201cI woke up from my nap after practice and I woke up to that news,\u201d James said<\/a>. \u201cIt was, like, we knew it was a shot to the heart obviously and to the chest, to the mainframe with Luka, understanding that. But we kinda got that news kinda quick. And then AR, kind of dealing with the pain, OK, we\u2019ll see whatever the case may be.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew he was gonna get an MRI but yeah, \u00a0I woke up from my nap and saw that (Reaves) news and was like, (Expletive)! That was literally my tone.\u201d<\/p>\n LeBron James, Lakers Currently Third in Western Conference<\/p>\n The Lakers currently are tied with the Nuggets<\/a> for the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, thanks to the 16-2 stretch they flaunted from February 28 through the end of March. But then came the first game in April, a 139-96 humbling against the Thunder that was an insult in itself, but added the injuries to Reaves and Doncic for good measure.<\/p>\n The Rockets<\/a> are just a game behind, putting the Lakers\u2019 first-round homecourt advantage in jeopardy with just three games left to play. The Lakers do have the tiebreakers over both the Rockets and the Nuggets, which is some consolation as the final weeks presses forward.<\/p>\n Getty\u00a0Luka Doncic #77 of the Los Angeles Lakers\u00a0<\/p>\n Luka Doncic Seeking Early Return for Lakers<\/p>\n There is also some hope that the Lakers, if they can stay alive in the first round of the playoffs, somehow, could get Doncic back sooner than expected. That\u2019s because of news that the Lakers star is going to Europe for a high-tech treatment on his hamstring that could get him ready to play on the early side of his timeline.<\/p>\n As ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania wrote on Twitter\/X<\/a>, \u201cAfter consultation with Lakers doctors and his own medical team, Luka Doncic will seek specialized medical treatment in Europe on his Grade 2 left hamstring in an attempt to expedite his return to play, agent Bill Duffy of WME Basketball tells me and @mcten<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSean Deveney<\/a> is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers From the moment it happened on Thursday night in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701882,"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-701881","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\/116359339950932434","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701881","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=701881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Luka](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775502495_546_GettyImages-2267315963-e1775399544822.jpg\")
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