The 2025-26 Los Angeles Lakers season has officially entered the danger zone.
Lakers superstar Luka Doncic will be out indefinitely due to his left hamstring injury, Shams Charania of ESPN reported on Friday. Doncic is set to miss at least the remainder of the regular season, and his status is uncertain beyond that, Charania adds.
Chris Haynes of NBA TV also reports that Doncic has formally been diagnosed with a grade 2 hamstring strain.
Doncic, the six-time All-Star, was injured during the Lakers’ humiliating loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Okla. While attempting to drive on OKC’s Jalen Williams in the third quarter, Doncic came up hobbled after making a move. He was quickly ruled out for the remainder of the contest by the Lakers and was visibly distraught about the injury (see the video here).
For Doncic individually, his regular season comes to an end at 64 games played. On paper, that would disqualify Doncic for this season’s NBA award eligibility (which comes with a minimum of 65 games played). However, we learned earlier in the day on Friday that there is still a chance Doncic may qualify based on a rarely-used exception for eligibility.
But the bigger concern right now is for the Lakers as a team. Grade 2 hamstring injuries typically come with an estimated 3-8 week recovery time, which is very bad news with the NBA playoffs set to begin in about two weeks.
The Lakers are currently No. 3 in the West with five games left to play but are only separated from the No. 6 seed Minnesota Timberwolves by 3.5 games. Thus, a number of unsavory possibilities are now on the table for the team, including a short-term drop in seeding, having to play a playoff series or two without Doncic, and/or Doncic not looking like the same player whenever he is able to return.
