The Los Angeles Lakers suffered their biggest defeat of the season on Thursday, losing 139-96 to the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center. While a 43-point defeat was bad enough, the Lakers suffered an even bigger blow on the night as Luka Doncic exited the game in the third quarter due to a strained left hamstring.
Doncic will undergo an MRI on Friday, and it’s likely he has played his last game of this regular season. If that does prove to be the case, then the Slovenian would be ineligible for end-of-season awards and honors.
Players have to play in at least 65 games to be eligible, and Thursday’s clash with the Thunder was Doncic’s 64th of the season. Getting suspended for Monday’s game against the Washington Wizards after picking up 16 technical fouls this season has proven to be very costly.
Now, there is actually an exception to that 65-game rule, but Doncic narrowly fails to qualify for that as well. A player will be eligible if they play 62 games and feature in at least 85% of their team’s games at the time of a season-ending injury.
Doncic has played in 64 out of 77 games for the Lakers, which comes to 83.1%. The 27-year-old is missing out by 1.9%.
Even if Doncic had played in 85% of the games, this hamstring injury would have to fall under the definition of “season-ending” according to the CBA for him to be eligible. It would need to be an injury that, in the opinion of a physician jointly selected by the NBA and the players’ association, makes it substantially more likely than not that the player would be unable to play through May 31 following the date of such injury.
It’s unlikely this hamstring injury would have been classified as “season-ending,” but Doncic not getting to 85% makes this moot. He’ll have to play one of the five remaining regular-season games for the Lakers to become eligible.
The final game is against the Utah Jazz on April 12. If it is a grade 1 strain, there might be an outside chance for him to suit up against the Jazz. It would be very risky, though, with the playoffs on the horizon. The Lakers would have no chance of making a deep postseason run if Doncic rushes back early against the Jazz and then goes down again. He and they have to err on the side of caution.
It would be a real shame, though, if Doncic becomes ineligible for the second year in a row. He only played 50 games for the Lakers and Dallas Mavericks last season, which snapped his streak of five consecutive All-NBA First Team selections. His 2024-25 season at least wasn’t a great one by his standards, but this one sure has been.
Doncic is averaging 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game in 2025-26. The six-time All-Star is the league’s leading scorer and was just named Player of the Month for March.
Doncic had averaged 37.5 points on 49.2% shooting from the field while leading the Lakers to a 15-2 record in March. He had thrust his name into the MVP conversation with these displays.
While Doncic winning the award over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama still looked a bit unlikely, he was at least all set to finish in the top three in voting for just the second time in his career. He was also going to be on the All-NBA First Team, but, in all likelihood, none of this will happen now.
A title run would definitely help ease the pain, but you now worry about just how effective Doncic will be in the first round of the playoffs, provided he plays in it. The playoffs only begin on April 18, so he does have a bit of time on his hands.
