Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a devastating loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thur, Apr 2 with a blowout final score of 139-96. The game was pretty much decided early on, with the Thunder having a sizzling start to the night and the Lakers being so cold offensively. With an 84-point first half, OKC was on cruise control for the rest of the night in this 61st victory of the season for them. But in the third quarter, something significantly bad happened for the Purple & Gold. Luka Doncic attempted to drive toward the basket, but when he did, he pulled up and his left hamstring became extremely gimpy. Doncic fell to the floor and had to be helped up to his feet by the athletic training staff for the Lakers. He was able to walk his way towards the sidelines, but he would walk off to the locker room and was greatly distressed. The status of Luka was unknown, but it looked like he had suffered his second major lower extremity injury in just a couple months after missing four games in February due to an ankle sprain.

Now we know more about Doncic’s status after he underwent an MRI in Dallas before the team’s next game against the Mavericks. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Doncic has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and is expected to be out for the rest of the regular season. As for his status for the playoffs, that is currently unknown. The typical recovery timeline for an NBA player from a hamstring strain is about one month. So, that means the Lakers might have to play a first-round series at the minimum without Doncic. This is a nightmare scenario to say the least for Los Angeles as their leading scorer with a 33.5 point per game average on a 30+-point scoring streak before a dismal performance in OKC, leading assister(with 8.3 per game) and leader in steals per game(at 1.6) is out for an unknown period of time.

For the Lakers, they currently sit at third place in the Western Conference and are only one game ahead of the Denver Nuggets for the three seed. With five games left, they are comfortably in the playoffs and will likely have home-court advantage in a First Round series, with them currently sitting three games ahead of the Houston Rockets in fifth. They hold the head-to-head tiebreaker against both of those teams, so if they were to finish with the same record as either of those teams, they would be in a good position. However, if they are the three-seed, they are likely to have a first-round rematch against the Minnesota Timberwolves, who currently sit two games behind the Rockets for fifth place. With one game left against Houston to determine the head-to-head tiebreaker, Minnesota could still face the Lakers in a five-four matchup if Denver surpasses them for third. The Nuggets still have a few tough games ahead of them and the Purple & Gold only have two games left against teams who are over .500 in the Thunder and Phoenix Suns. So, a three seed is likely to be secured by the Lakers, but some players are going to have to step up big time in Luka’s absence.

LeBron James is back in a position where he was for several seasons before Doncic was acquired in being the main option as he has averaged 20.6 points, six rebounds and seven assists per game over 56 games he has played in. Austin Reaves will be the main ballhandler anytime he is on the floor and he has a career-high 23.3 points per game and is averaging 5.5 assists as well. The forwards will have to step up big, as Rui Hachimura and Jake LaRavia are going to see more time in offensive roles. Attacking the paint and passing the ball to the centers on the roster is also going to be paramount as DeAndre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes need to be more reliable than they have ever been offensively speaking. The only other main player who is injured currently for Los Angeles is Marcus Smart, who has been out these past couple weeks with an ankle injury. Smart’s return could come as soon as the Sunday night game in Dallas against the Mavs and he will be even more valuable to the Lakers heading into the playoffs with Doncic out.

Another drawback of Doncic’s injury is that he will no longer be eligible for MVP or All-NBA or offensive player of the year considerations due to him not meeting the criteria of playing in 65 regular season games. For these past few seasons, this rule has been in effect so that load management of injuries can be discouraged for teams with star players playing in games that are nationally televised. But now it seems that this rule is going to have to be amended because although it makes sense to use this standard for MVP voting, when it comes to all other categories applying the 65-game minimum game requirement seems a little redundant. In a sport like the NBA, players get hurt and sometimes miss extended amount of time. Whether it be a few weeks or a full month, injuries happen because these players are mortal human beings. The NBA league office should reconsider this rule so that the best players can at least have more of a grace period of missed games due to actual injuries. Perhaps 60 games seems like a more reasonable benchmark and not the retirement age numbered 65. But Luka falling one game short of consideration for All-NBA is salt in the wound that basically erases what has been an incredible season capped by this three-week long stretch of amazing basketball performances. From 51 points against the Chicago Bulls, to hitting a game-winning jump shot against Denver, to a 100-point scoring stretch over two games played on back-to-back nights in Houston and Miami, Doncic was playing at such a high level before his very bad injury. So, a first-team All-NBA consideration should be in hand for a guy who missed some games due to injury management early on and will have missed plenty of other games due to actual injuries keeping him off the floor.

The bright side of this catastrophe is that Luka won’t be able to pick up more technical fouls, unless he actually badmouths the refs or an opposing player from the bench(assuming he is present for some of the remaining games on the Lakers’ regular season schedule). At 16 technical fouls for the season, Doncic served a one-game suspension in the first game of a back-to-back to conclude an amazing month of March for the Purple & Gold. For now, the Lakers will have to power through without their best player and hope the supporting cast steps up going forward. An injury like this can be devastating, but if Luka can return in time for a potential second round series against one of the two teams seated at the top of the West, then perhaps all is not lost. But weighing a potential injury risk when the next season is only six months away, a playoff return for Doncic is currently unlikely to happen. This will make things harder for J.J Redick to manage and he will seek to avoid coaching a Lakers team to a third straight First Round elimination(continuing a streak started by Darvin Ham in 2024). The Purple & Gold have a real challenge on their hands, but they have at least five games to get used to playing without Luka before a first-round series begins in a couple weeks’ time.