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The Los Angeles Lakers’ championship hopes just took a major hit.
NBA scoring leader Luka Dončić will miss the rest of the regular season with a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring, the team announced Friday.
It’s unclear what his status is for the postseason.
Dončić was the main reason the Lakers climbed into the third spot in the Western Conference standings. But an injury to his leg during Los Angeles’ blowout loss in Oklahoma City Thursday has taken that all away after an MRI exam revealed the severity of the strain.
Lakers coach JJ Redick said Dončić was injured in the first half against the Thunder but was cleared to return to the game while his team was getting plastered by the defending NBA champion Thunder.
Dončić lasted only about four minutes before he spun, stopped and went down on the court in pain, leading to his departure.
The Lakers acquired Dončić in a surprising and controversial trade in February 2025, when the Dallas Mavericks sent the Latvian superstar, along with Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to LA in exchange for 31-year-old Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick. The move left many fans and pundits puzzled, believing the trade was lopsided in favor of the Lakers.
The Pacific Division champion Lakers (50-27) have just five games left before the postseason, starting Sunday at Dallas.
Grade 2 hamstring strains sometimes require several weeks of recovery, but Dončić also has prior experience with hamstring issues. He missed four games right before the All-Star break with another left hamstring strain but returned to the lineup after the break.
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Dončić is putting up spectacular numbers in his first full season with the Lakers, who acquired the Slovenian superstar from the Mavericks last season.
He is averaging 33.5 points, 8.3 assists and 7.7 rebounds per game for Los Angeles, and he was named the NBA’s Western Conference player of the month for March after racking up 13 consecutive 30-point performances, including seven 40-point games, a 51-point barrage against Chicago and a 60-point masterclass in Miami.
Dončić scored 600 points in March, becoming only the 10th player in NBA history to hit that mark in a single month. While LeBron James and Austin Reaves have also played well down the stretch, the Lakers depend on Dončić, who either scored or assisted on 58% of their total points in March.
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The Lakers’ regular-season finale is next Sunday, April 12, at home against Utah. Their first-round playoff series is expected to start the following weekend.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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