CLEVELAND – Lakers guard Luka Dončić appeared to suffer a left leg injury in the first quarter on Wednesday when he stepped in the gap between the Cleveland Cavaliers’ home court and the bench.
The Cavaliers have the only raised court in the NBA, with the arena floor a few inches lower than the playing surface.
Dončić fell backwards off the court after shooting a fading 3-point shot in front of the Lakers’ bench. As he hopped backwards, his left foot slipped, and he fell. He stayed on the ground for an extended period, grabbing at his lower left leg.
“I kind of got scared,” Dončić said after the Lakers’ 129-99 loss to Cleveland. “It wasn’t a great feeling, and, looking back at the video, I think I got a little bit lucky.”
He limped to the locker room without putting much weight on the leg. He returned to the game later in the quarter, though he clearly was bothered by the ankle.
“I tried to go,” he said. “Obviously, wasn’t 100 percent. But I tried.”
He finished with 29 points, five rebounds and six assists, but the Lakers suffered their worst loss of the season.
“I feel like everybody was a little low energy,” Dončić said. “Those games are gonna come, but we gotta be way better than that.”
Dončić isn’t the first NBA player to suffer an injury because of the gap between the court and the arena floor. In 2023, Miami Heat guard Dru Smith injured his right knee when he got stuck between the court and arena floor contesting a 3-point shot.
The Heat reportedly contacted the NBA with safety concerns after Smith’s Grade 3 ACL sprain.
“It is absolutely a safety hazard,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said after the game. “And I don’t know why it’s still like that. I don’t. You know, you can lodge formal complaints. A lot of times you don’t see any change when you lodge a formal complaint.”