And Just Like That: The Lakers Regular Season Ends in Disaster After Luka Doncic Injury
Luka Doncic will miss the remainder of the NBA regular season and is out indefinitely after suffering a Grade 2 left hamstring sprain, according to ESPN.
The Lakers were rolling at just the right time. They went 15-2 in the month of March, Luka had just received the ‘Player of the Month’ award, and the team was on their way to secure the 3rd seed in the West. A handful of Lakers also just reached some big milestones.
Rui Hachimura just scored his 5,000th career point, Luka scored his 15,000th, JJ Redick won his 100th game as head coach and became the first LAL coach since Phil Jackson to have back-to-back 50-win seasons, LeBron James broke the record for most wins in NBA history, and the Lakers had their most winningest month (March) since the 2000 Lakers.
On April 2nd against the Thunder, things went from bad to worse. From the moment the ball tipped off, the Lakers seemed to be no match for OKC. LA trailed the entire game and eventually lost by 43 points. But a bad game you can move on from, flush it, and look toward the next game. The real gut punch came when Luka Doncic suddenly grabbed his left hamstring in the 3rd quarter.
Doncic Out Indefinitely
A Grade 2 hamstring strain is a partial tear and typically takes 4-6 weeks to recover from. This means that Doncic will miss time in the playoffs.
The only likely way for Doncic to return would be if the Lakers somehow made a deep postseason run into the 2nd or 3rd rounds.
But without their MVP guard, they’ll have their work cut out for them.
The LeBron and AR Show
The Lakers’ keeping the 3rd seed is now in Jeopardy. If the Denver Nuggets win out, the Lakers can afford to lose only 1 of their 5 remaining games. If Denver loses 1 game the rest of the way, the Lakers can afford 2 losses to keep the 3rd seed, and so on.
LeBron James and Austin Reaves will have to carry the load for the foreseeable future. Winning a first-round series, no matter the opponent, became that much more difficult. Many anticipated seeing this MVP version of Luka dominate the postseason.
If this ends up being the end of Doncic’s season, it was one heck of a historic year, with some of the best basketball in franchise history.
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