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Lakers star Luka Doncic out indefinitely with hamstring strain

April 3, 2026

DALLAS — Luka Doncic’s Dallas homecoming has evolved into the start of a hold-your-breath end to the regular season for the Slovenian star.

The Lakers (50-27) announced on Friday that an MRI revealed Doncic suffered a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and will miss the remainder of the regular season. His status beyond that is uncertain.

Doncic hurt his left hamstring during the Lakers’ 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.

About midway through the third quarter, Doncic grabbed at his hamstring after attempting to shoot. The 27-year-old guard hobbled underneath the basket where he eased himself to the court as his teammates rushed over from the bench.

Guard Austin Reaves shouted at heckling Thunder fans as LeBron James stood beside him and Luke Kennard held Reaves back from any further confrontation. The outcome was already decided – an ugly display of basketball that was never competitive – but potentially losing Doncic proverbially sucked the oxygen out of the visitors’ locker room after the game.

“You wish for the best,” Reaves said after the game on Thursday. “Obviously, you don’t want to see anybody get hurt. But you just hold on to some faith for the best news possible.

“He’s a competitor, so he’ll do all he can do to put himself in a position to, you know, come back when he can,” Reaves added.

Doncic missed four games leading up to the All-Star break with what Lakers coach JJ Redick had called a “mild” hamstring strain. Now, Doncic is out until at least the first round of the playoffs, which are set to begin on April 18 or 19.

According to Jeff Stotts of Rotowire, the average time lost for a Grade 2 strain is 35 days or 14.7 games.

Doncic, who has played in 64 games this season, one short of the 65-game mark needed to qualify for MVP and All-NBA honors among postseason awards, didn’t return to play Thursday.

There is a way Doncic could still receive MVP recognition, filing an extraordinary circumstances grievance for having missed two games in December when he traveled to Slovenia for the birth of his second child.

The NBA rulebook splits the grievance into three stipulations:

The first: “It was impracticable for the player to play in one or more of the game(s) that he missed due to extraordinary circumstances.”

The second: “The player would have played in at least 65 regular-season games if he had played in every game that he missed due to the extraordinary circumstances.”

And the third: “As a result of the extraordinary circumstances, and taking into account the totality of the circumstances (including whether the player did not play in other Regular Season games in which he could have played), it would be unjust to exclude the player from award eligibility.”

If Doncic had played in both December absences, he would sit at 66 games – enough to be considered for MVP. Doncic is in line to end the season as the league’s leading scorer – currently averaging 33.5 points per game to go with 8.3 assists and 7.7 rebounds – and has won Western Conference Player of the Month honors twice, most recently after the Lakers rolled to a 15-2 record in March.

Doncic’s agent Bill Duffy said in a statement to ESPN that Doncic planned on applying for such a challenge with the reasoning of his child’s birth.

Orange County Register

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Lakers star Luka Doncic out indefinitely with hamstring strain

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