This season just got a major blow for the Los Angeles Lakers, who had dreams of making a title run after rising to third in the standings.
Less than one full day after watching Luka Doncic go down against the Thunder on Thursday, the Lakers confirmed the bad news: Doncic will miss the rest of the regular season. The official diagnosis is a Grade 2 hamstring strain, which requires a 3-6 week recovery time.
“Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic is out indefinitely due to a left hamstring injury,” wrote ESPN’s Shams Charania. “He will miss the remainder of the regular season, and his status is uncertain beyond that.”
Doncic left Thursday’s game after trying a play against Jalen Williams. It was a non-contact injury, leading many to suspect a calf strain before he even went to the locker room. Today, the injury was officially confirmed as a Grade 2 sprain, ruling Doncic out for the season and likely out for the playoffs, unless the Lakers make an extended run without him.
With just 64 games under his belt, Doncic falls just short of the NBA’s 65-game minimum requirement, but there’s still a way he can qualify for All-NBA teams. After the news of his absence broke on social media, his agent, Bill Duffy of WME Basketball, came out with the following statement, confirming his intention to challenge Luka’s ineligibility.
“This season, Luka Doncic 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,” said Duffy, via Shams. “To ensure that Luka’s incredible accomplishments this season are rightly honored and he can be considered for the league’s end-of-season awards, we intend to apply for an ‘Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge’ 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’s 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.”
The NBA’s 65-game rule was designed to combat load management by setting a threshold for missed games. Any player who doesn’t play the minimum can’t win any awards, potentially costing them millions. While the rule has been met with increasing scrutiny, the NBA has no plans to change it.
For Luka, it means that the only path to making an All-NBA team is to be granted an exception. While he doesn’t qualify for every exception, the ‘Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge’ allows for some missed games not to be counted against the 65-game rule if there was a special excuse or reason.
In Luka’s case, missing two games earlier in the year for the birth of his daughter fits the conditions for this exception, and we can expect the league to fully consider his request. For now, it’s up to the NBA’s hands, and there’s no way to know which way they are leaning.
Regardless of how it ends, this campaign deserves to be remembered for Luka, even if it’s not given official recognition. In 64 games this season, the Lakers star is averaging 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game on 47.6% shooting and 36.6% shooting from three. He led the Lakers to the third seed in the West (50-27), but his season is likely over as a long recovery process awaits.
