Luka Doncic (hamstring) to miss at least relaxation of common season

DALLAS — Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic will be sidelined at least through the finish of the common season with a Grade 2 left hamstring pressure, the staff announced Friday.

Doncic underwent an MRI in Dallas on Friday afternoon that revealed the extent of the pressure, which he suffered in the third quarter of the Lakers’ 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday.

A Grade 2 pressure usually entails a monthlong restoration, but the Lakers did not present a timetable for Doncic’s return beyond lacking the last 5 regular-season video games. The first spherical of the NBA playoffs begins April 18.

While the harm will forestall Doncic from reaching the 65-game threshold needed to be eligible for end-of-season awards, his agent, Bill Duffy of WME Basketball, instructed ESPN’s Shams Charania that he will apply for an “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge” on behalf of his shopper.

“This season, Luka Doncic has performed at a historic level, leading the league in scoring, carrying the Lakers to third place in the Western Conference and placing himself in the middle of one of the most tightly contested MVP races in memory,” Duffy said in a assertion to ESPN. “To ensure that Luka’s incredible accomplishments this season are rightly honored and he can be considered for the league’s end-of-season awards, we intend to apply for an ‘Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge’ to the 65-game rule.

“Luka missed two video games this season for the beginning of his second youngster in Slovenia. His daughter was born on Dec. 4, on another continent, and yet he was back in the United States competing with his staff on Dec. 6. Luka has gone to great lengths to show up for his staff and this league this season. His record-breaking season deserves to be famous in the historical past books, despite last night time’s unlucky harm and other extraordinary circumstances. We look ahead to working with the NBAPA and the league workplace to guarantee a truthful end result in this matter.”

In ESPN’s third and final NBA MVP straw poll of 2025-26, which polled 100 NBA media members, Doncic placed a distant fourth behind runaway favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Thunder, the San Antonio Spurs‘ Victor Wembanyama and the Denver Nuggets‘ Nikola Jokic.

Doncic’s first full regular season with the Lakers will end with the eight-year veteran leading the league with 33.5 points per game, along with 8.3 assists (third in the NBA), 7.7 rebounds (second among guards) and 1.6 steals (sixth in the league) in 64 appearances.

The Lakers (50-27), currently No. 3 in the Western Conference, have clinched a playoff spot and have a road game against the Dallas Mavericks, home sport against the Thunder, highway sport against the Golden State Warriors and home video games against the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz remaining on their schedule.

Los Angeles is one game ahead of No. 4 Denver, two games ahead of the No. 5 Houston Rockets and 4 video games forward of the No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves. The Lakers own the tiebreaker against those three groups by profitable the season sequence against each.