{"id":563048,"date":"2026-04-03T23:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T23:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/563048\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T23:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T23:41:11","slug":"lakers-star-luka-doncic-to-miss-remainder-of-regular-season-with-hamstring-strain-will-challenge-nbas-65-game-minimum-for-awards-eligibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/563048\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers star Luka Don\u010di\u0107 to miss remainder of regular season with hamstring strain, will challenge NBA’s 65-game minimum for awards eligibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers suffered both insult and injury Thursday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. During the team\u2019s blowout loss<\/a>, star guard Luka Don\u010di\u0107 was forced to leave the game due to a left hamstring injury.<\/a><\/p>\n

Don\u010di\u0107 underwent an MRI on Friday and was diagnosed with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, resulting in the Lakers ruling him out indefinitely, according to ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania<\/a> and Dave McMenamin<\/a>. At the very least, he will miss the remainder of the regular season.<\/p>\n

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His status once the playoffs begin is reportedly uncertain.<\/p>\n

According to one expert, Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes<\/a>, Grade 2 hamstring strains lead to an average time lost of 35 days. That would line up Don\u010di\u0107 for a May 8 return, which would land him in the conference semifinals phase of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

With Don\u010di\u0107 out, the Lakers saw their title odds all but disappear<\/a>, going from 25-to-1 to 150-to-1 at BetMGM<\/a>. They were also previously 14-to-1 to win the Western Conference and are now 55-to-1.<\/p>\n

\"OKLAHOMA<\/p>\n

Luka Don\u010di\u0107 appears poised to miss part of the NBA playoffs too.<\/p>\n

(Cooper Neill via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The development not only costs the Lakers their leading scorer for the foreseeable future, it also leaves Don\u010di\u0107 one game short of the NBA\u2019s 65-game minimum for regular season awards eligibility.<\/p>\n

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In a statement released shortly after the news broke<\/a>, Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s agent, Bill Duffy, said his camp intends to challenge that rule on the grounds that Don\u010di\u0107 missed two games in December for the birth of his daughter:<\/p>\n

“This season, Luka Don\u010di\u0107 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. To ensure that Luka\u2019s incredible accomplishments this season are rightly honored and he can be considered for the league\u2019s end-of-season awards, we intend to apply for an \u201cExtraordinary Circumstances Challenge\u201d to the 65-game rule. Luka missed two games this season for the birth of his second child in Slovenia. His daughter was born on Dec. 4 on another continent, and yet he was back in the United States competing with his team on Dec. 6. Luka has gone to great lengths to show up for his team and this league this season. His record-breaking season deserves to be noted in the history books, despite last night\u2019s unfortunate injury and other extraordinary circumstances. We look forward to working with the NBAPA and the league office to ensure a fair outcome in this matter.”<\/p>\n

The injury occurred with a little over seven minutes remaining in the third quarter. Don\u010di\u0107 pulled up near the free-throw line after being double-teamed and grabbed at his left hamstring. He laid on the court for a while before eventually leaving the contest.<\/p>\n

After the game, Lakers head coach JJ Redick revealed Don\u010di\u0107 actually tweaked his hamstring in the first quarter, but was cleared to play in the second half.<\/a> Don\u010di\u0107 missed four games earlier in the season due to a left hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

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The injury comes at an awful time for the Lakers, as the team has just five games left in the regular season. Following Thursday\u2019s loss, the Lakers sit at 50-27, good for the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

They are only one game ahead of the fourth-place Denver Nuggets, though. With Don\u010di\u0107 out for their remaining games, they could be facing a fight to hold onto their spot in the standings, which comes with seeding implications (i.e. having to face the West-leading Thunder a round earlier).<\/p>\n

And then there are the end-of-season award implications, which Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s camp is trying to overcome. While not the favorite, Don\u010di\u0107 launched himself into the MVP race following a dominant stretch of games as the Lakers\u2019 regular season came to a close.<\/p>\n

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Coming into Thursday\u2019s game, Don\u010di\u0107 averaged 39.8 points in his previous 13 contests. He scored 12 points in nearly 26 minutes against the Thunder before leaving Thursday\u2019s game. If eligible, he would be a lock for All-NBA honors at the very least.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers suffered both insult and injury Thursday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. During the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,1753,249308,451,66655,6306,3014,3,6402,36315,6400,452,453,17814],"class_list":{"0":"post-563048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-denver-nuggets","11":"tag-grade-2-hamstring-strain","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-jj-redick","14":"tag-lakers","15":"tag-luka-doncic","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","18":"tag-regular-season","19":"tag-shams-charania","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-western-conference"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}