The Los Angeles Lakers were hit on their heads by a proverbial sledgehammer on Thursday. Not only did they get slammed by the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder 139-96, but they also lost Luka Doncic to a hamstring injury in the third quarter.
Suddenly, the prevailing feeling went from disappointment or frustration caused by the lopsided defeat to acute concern about the health of the team’s franchise player moving forward. Doncic didn’t return to the game after sustaining his injury, and coach JJ Redick said he will undergo an MRI.
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Dr. Evan Jeffries, an NBA and NFL injury insider, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that if Doncic suffered a hamstring strain, he could miss as many as six weeks of action, which could effectively end his season. Even a Grade I strain, which is the mildest level of severity, would result in him sitting out for a week or two.
Some Lakers fans are now second-guessing Redick’s decision-making, as Doncic first appeared to tweak his hamstring early in the game but was cleared to keep playing. The Slovenian has often played hurt, but now he has suffered an injury at almost the worst time of the season.
Coming into Thursday’s game, the Lakers had won 16 of their previous 18 games and were one of the hottest teams in the NBA. Perhaps the only team hotter than them was Oklahoma City, which has now claimed 19 victories in its last 21 games.
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Los Angeles will not play again until Sunday when it visits the Dallas Mavericks.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: NBA injury doc on how long Luka Doncic could miss with bad hamstring