![\"Magic](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2248214919-e1775587233829.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Magic Johnson is concerned about Lakers injuries.<\/p>\n
It turns out that former Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> star Magic<\/a> Johnson is a lot like the rest of us. When he saw Luka Doncic<\/a>\u00a0go down in a heap on the sideline last Thursday in Oklahoma City, it was clear that the injury was serious and that Doncic would be out for some time with a hamstring injury. The only question was whether that injury was a Grade 1 hamstring injury, which would take him out for a week or two, or a Grade 2\u2013which means more like a month.<\/p>\n The next day, it was revealed that Doncic did, inf act, suffer a Grade 2 injury, but that did not brace Lakers backers for what came next, when another dose of devastating news landed. While dealing with Doncic\u2019s hamstring, the Lakers also knew that Austin Reaves was dealing with some discomfort during the loss to the Thunder<\/a>, and it was revealed that he has a Grade 2 oblique strain.<\/p>\n Both Doncic and Reaves will miss the remainder of the season, and though there is some hope that Doncic can return early, both are expected to miss at least the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n Magic Johnson: \u2018Timing Couldn\u2019t Be Worse\u2019 for Injury News<\/p>\n Johnson, who played 13 seasons for the Lakers, won five NBA<\/a> championships and holds the all-time record for assists per game at 11.2, revealed he was crestfallen.<\/p>\n He wrote on Twitter\/X<\/a>: \u201cJust when I thought Luka\u2019s injury was devastating for my Lakers we got the news that Austin Reaves will also be out with an oblique injury. The timing of these injuries couldn\u2019t be worse with the NBA Playoffs a week away.\u201d<\/p>\n Lakers Injury Woes Overshadow Playoffs<\/p>\n Indeed, the Lakers\u2019 challenge now is to keep themselves in the picture for one of the top seeds in the playoffs and hope to ride homecourt momentum to an upset win in the first round.<\/p>\n L.A. currently is fourth in the West, a half-game behind the Nuggets<\/a>. They are a game ahead of the Rockets<\/a> and hold the tiebreaker in that head-to-head matchup, as well as in the Nuggets matchup. If the Lakers can bounce back and pass the Nuggets, they\u2019d likely get the Timberwolves<\/a> in the first round, as the No. 3 seed with homecourt advantage,<\/p>\n If they stay at No. 4, it would be Houston, with the Lakers at home for Game 1. But fall to No. 5, and it the Rockets, but with Game 1 on the road.<\/p>\n Getty\u00a0Luka Doncic of the Lakers<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Lakers Could Get Luka Doncic Back Early<\/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<\/a> reported<\/a>, \u201cI\u2019m told Luka Doncic is currently in Spain, he traveled there because he is undergoing an injection procedure in that Grade 2 hamstring area to see if he can promote healing and at the end of the day, expedite his return process. He is doing everything he can to get back out on the court.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know, a Grade 2 hamstring strain typically falls between four and six weeks. He is doing everything he can to see if he can push that timeline up \u00a0just a little bit. We\u2019re still not sure exactly how this treatment goes, does it work, how much does it speed everything up? But that\u2019s what he is doing. He\u2019s in Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/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 Magic Johnson is concerned about Lakers injuries. It turns out that former Los Angeles Lakers star Magic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-703865","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\/116364905251008044","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703865","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=703865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Luka](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775587395_660_GettyImages-22668876431-e1775581083618.jpg\")
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