DALLAS — The Los Angeles Lakers will not have Luka Dončić for the remainder of the regular season and almost certainly won’t have their star guard available to them whenever they begin the NBA playoffs.
An MRI revealed Dončić suffered a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, the Lakers announced Friday, while only revealing he will not play the rest of the regular season. The Lakers have only five games remaining on their schedule and could begin their first-round playoff series six days after that — a little more than two weeks after Dončić suffered the injury in Thursday’s blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The injury punctures whatever hopes the Lakers had for their postseason. Dončić and the Lakers were amid a surge in the West standings, having risen to third place on the back of a 15-2 March. Dončić earned Western Conference Player of the Month honors while making a late push for his first MVP award.
The Lakers built their 50-win season around Dončić, the league’s leader in scoring and usage rate. Dončić is averaging a league-leading 33.5 points in 64 games, along with 7.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists per contest.
Los Angeles is 7-6 without Dončić this season. The Lakers’ best wins in that stretch came on the road against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Toronto Raptors, when Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura hit game-winning shots at the buzzer.
The team will likely ask Reaves and LeBron James to take on expanded offensive roles in Dončić’s absence. The Lakers play the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday before hosting the Thunder on Tuesday. The Lakers also have an away game against the Golden State Warriors and home games against the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz before the end of the regular season.
Entering Friday’s action, the Lakers have a one-game lead on the Denver Nuggets for the No. 3 seed in the West and control the tiebreak scenarios with the Nuggets, Houston Rockets and Timberwolves. The Lakers are 2 1/2 games ahead of Houston, the current No. 5 seed in the West.
Though Dončić will end up one game short of eligibility for postseason awards such as MVP and all-NBA, he plans to appeal under the NBA’s “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge” because two of his missed games occurred when he returned to Slovenia for his second daughter’s birth, agent Bill Duffy said in a statement to The Athletic and other media outlets. That provision could allow him to regain eligibility if the league determines “it was impracticable for him to play in one or more of the Regular Season game(s) that he missed during such Season.”
“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’s unfortunate injury and other extraordinary circumstances,” Duffy said. “We look forward to working with the NBAPA and the league office to ensure a fair outcome in this matter.”
The injury ends Dončić’s first full regular season with the Lakers. After a stunning trade to the organization in 2025, Dončić entered training camp with a remade body, having lost significant weight while adding muscle.
Dončić scored 43 and 49 points in the Lakers’ first two games before missing three games with a finger injury. He returned and added a 44-point game in his third appearance. Dončić finished his season having scored 40 or more points in 16 of his 64 games. His season high came on the second night of a back-to-back in Miami, when he scored 60 points against the Heat.
Dončić was building momentum to be considered for his first MVP award before Thursday’s game in Oklahoma City. After a disastrous start for Dončić and his team, the Lakers guard was seen grabbing at his left hamstring late in the first half. He received treatment at halftime and was cleared to return to action.
A little more than four minutes into the second half, Dončić drove on Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams, planting his left leg and immediately dropping the basketball as he reached for his hamstring.
Soon after, he fell to the ground and covered his face in frustration. He did the same with his jersey as he limped off the court and into the Lakers’ locker room. Los Angeles trailed by 32 points at the time.
“At this point, at this juncture of the season, it’s the last thing you want to see,” James said after the game.
How fast have others returned from similar injuries?
The recent history of Grade 2 hamstring injuries is discouraging for Dončić’s outlook.
Nuggets forward Peyton Watson recently missed 20 games in 46 days because of a Grade 2 right hamstring strain. Watson reaggravated the injury Wednesday and is considered week to week.
Watson’s teammate Aaron Gordon tried to play with a Grade 2 hamstring strain in the playoffs last season. He suffered the injury in November, missing 20 games in 44 days, then injured his hamstring again in January and missed 18 more games in 42 days.
Thunder star Jalen Williams, who was guarding Dončić at the time of the injury, missed 10 games over 23 days with an initial right hamstring strain. After a successful return on the road against the Lakers on Feb. 9, Williams reinjured the hamstring in Phoenix on Feb. 11. The second hamstring injury cost Williams 17 games in 40 days.
Going further back, James Harden had a Grade 2 hamstring strain in January 2018 that cost him eight games in 18 days. He also said he played with a Grade 2 hamstring strain during the 2021 playoffs after missing Games 2-4 of the Brooklyn Nets’ semifinals series against the Milwaukee Bucks.
— Sam Amick and Law Murray contributed to this story.