The Lakers get some interesting news regarding the severity of Doncic's injury.
The Los Angeles Lakers got the news they were dreading on Friday.
Luka Doncic has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and will miss the remainder of the regular season, the team announced.
The average recovery timeline for a Grade 2 hamstring strain is three to six weeks, which means his availability for the first round of the playoffs is very much up in the air.
Doncic went down during Thursday night's 139-96 blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder after he first tweaked the hamstring late in the first half.
The team's medical staff treated him at halftime and cleared him to return, but midway through the third quarter, while driving against Jalen Williams, he planted his left leg and immediately doubled over in pain.
He ended up lying on the baseline with his hands over his face, and you could tell he was visibly shaken walking back to the locker room.
This is the same left hamstring that cost him four games back in February, making the re-aggravation even more worrying.
What This Does to the Lakers' Season
The Lakers sit at 50-27 with the No. 3 seed in the West, but they hold just a one-game lead over Denver heading into the final five games.
Los Angeles has gone 7-6 without Doncic this year, and if they slip to the No. 4 seed they could end up facing the Thunder again in the second round.
On the season, Doncic is putting up 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 8.3 assists per game, and his absence leaves a hole that nobody on this roster can fully fill.
Now it falls on LeBron James, who is averaging 20.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 7.0 assists across 55 games, to carry a much heavier load alongside Austin Reaves.
James called Doncic an MVP candidate after Thursday's game and said the team would rally together, but the reality is the Lakers looked completely overmatched against Oklahoma City (61-16) even with Doncic on the floor.
The Awards Question
Beyond the playoff implications, the diagnosis also likely ends Doncic's shot at end-of-season awards under the NBA's 65-game eligibility rule.
Thursday's game was his 64th of the season, one short of the threshold needed to qualify for MVP, All-NBA, and other honors.
His agent Bill Duffy released a statement on Friday saying the camp plans to file for an "Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge" to the 65-game rule so that Doncic's season can still be recognized.
The timing of all this is brutal because Doncic was in the middle of one of the best stretches of his career.
He won Western Conference Player of the Month for March after averaging 37.5 points while the Lakers went 15-2, and he scored 40 or more in five of his last seven games before going down.
All of that momentum vanished in one night in Oklahoma City.
The best-case scenario now is that Doncic recovers on the shorter end of the timeline and returns for the start of the playoffs, which are about 16 days away.
The worst case is that this drags into the first round and the Lakers have to try to survive without the league's leading scorer.
Either way, the championship picture in the West just shifted dramatically.