It wasn’t noticeable to most, if any, Lakers fans watching the game from home on Tuesday, but those in attendance caught a concerning couple of moments from Luka Dončić against the Warriors.
In the closing
moments of the contest, Luka reached for the inside of his leg near his groin multiple times. Given similar injuries in recent years to LeBron James and Anthony Davis, Lakers fans are aware of how serious those can be.
Perhaps stoking the fire more is that Luka took quite a long time before making his way to the podium postgame. According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, that time was spent receiving treatment on his right leg.
Once he did arrive, though, he quickly stamped out any worries about an injury by quickly brushing away the question.
“It’s probably nothing,” Luka said. “Just felt a little bit when my hip went that way. Just felt a little bit. Probably nothing.”
It’s unclear when Luka would have suffered the injury as, again, it wasn’t even noticeable on the NBC feed that he was favoring his groin. He was also moving fine on both ends of the court down the stretch, so it wasn’t hampering him, either.
It goes without saying that losing Luka for any stretch whatsoever would be a blow the Lakers would not recover from early in the season. With LeBron sidelined with his own injury, the team will lean heavily on Luka. In Tuesday’s loss, he played 41 minutes with 43 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists.
There would be a cruel irony to Luka getting in the best shape of his life, then suffering an injury in the first game. Fortunately, it looks like catastrophe was averted.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
