OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic injured his left hamstring on Thursday night and coach JJ Redick said the league's scoring leader will have an MRI on Friday.
Redick said Doncic had an issue with the hamstring in the first half of the 139-97 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder and was tended to at the break.
“We checked him out, he got work done, he was cleared," Redick said.
Doncic returned to action briefly. On his final play
of the game, he spun before trying to go up for a shot against Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams. There was no contact before he stopped, then lay down on the floor. He left the game with 7:39 remaining in the third quarter.
“Those things happen,” Redick said.
Doncic had scored at least 40 points in five of his previous seven games. He was held to 12 on 3-for-10 shooting against Oklahoma City's relentless defense.
The injury made a bad night worse. The Lakers trailed 90-58 when Doncic left the game for good.
“I mean, it’s something you never want to see as a teammate,” Lakers forward Jake LaRavia said. “So especially in a game like this, it was tough to see him go down. All the prayers for him hopefully, but yeah, you never want to see that.”
Lakers guard Austin Reaves also left briefly with a back injury.
“He was in a weird position, stretching for a basketball, loose ball," Redick said. "And he just felt something intercostal, somewhere in his back, in between the ribs. He was able to play through it ... we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”
The Lakers will host a rematch with the Thunder on April 7.
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