If the 43-point loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder wasn’t bad enough, the Los Angeles Lakers are also on edge as superstar guard Luka Doncic went down in the second half with a left hamstring injury and did not return.
While Doncic suffered his injury in the third quarter, head coach JJ Redick is facing criticism over what transpired before halftime.
The Lakers trailed by 31 at the start of the third quarter, and Doncic already was seen grabbing at the hamstring in the first half. Additionally, Austin Reaves dealt with a back issue as well, but both were on the court to start the second half.
“It was discussed at halftime,” Redick said on Spectrum SportsNet when asked about possibly sitting Doncic and Reaves. “Thought we’d give those guys about six minutes and if we didn’t cut into the lead we were gonna pull them. Obviously it was around that time, I don’t remember the exact time, [the injury] happened.”
In this age of the NBA, comebacks are always a possibility, even one as daunting as the Lakers were facing against the defending champion. Redick at least giving his team a chance to see if they could fight back into the game makes sense, but unfortunately Doncic went down before he could pull him from the game.
Hamstring injuries are always tricky, but Redick made it clear that team doctors evaluated Doncic out at halftime and insisted that they would never put him at risk.
“We checked him out. He got work done, but he was cleared,” Redick added. “We’re not gonna put a player at risk. Those things happen.”
The Lakers have always erred on the side of caution when it comes to injuries, and specifically those that are soft tissue. So it is more than reasonable to assume they thoroughly checked out Doncic and felt comfortable with him playing. It was simply bad luck that the injury worsened.
With the playoffs just around the corner this is the last thing Doncic or the Lakers wanted to happen and everyone is hopeful the MRI will reveal something on the minor side that won’t keep him out into the postseason.
Austin Reaves gets in verbal altercation over Luka Doncic
Frustrations nearly boiled over during Doncic’s injury as a Thunder fan directed a comment towards the superstar as he was on the ground in pain. That prompted Reaves to come to his teammate’s defense, going back at the fan and telling him to have some respect amongst many other things in a profanity-laced verbal altercation.
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