Luka Don\u010di\u0107 is taking the blame for the hamstring injury that sidelined him for the Los Angeles Lakers’ playoff run last spring.<\/p>\n
Don\u010di\u0107 played for the final time last season on April 2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, a game in which the Lakers trailed by 31 points at the half.<\/p>\n
He told Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix<\/a> he regretted not exiting the game after tweaking his left hamstring in the second quarter.<\/p>\n Don\u010di\u0107 instead stayed in for the third, during which he suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain that kept him on the sideline for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n The Lakers were eliminated in a second-round sweep by the Thunder more than a month later.<\/p>\n “When it comes to my spirit of trying to win, I am just stubborn,” Don\u010di\u0107 told Mannix. “I felt a little bit in the first half that I should have just stopped. I should have come out. I think we had a team that could compete for the championship. I definitely regret it.”<\/p>\n Don\u010di\u0107 isn’t the only player who showed up in the second half of that blowout loss to the Thunder only to miss significant time due to injury afterward. <\/p>\n Austin Reaves, who looked uncomfortable earlier in the game, started the third quarter before missing more than three weeks with an oblique injury. <\/p>\n