Slovenian guard Luka Doncic could miss at least one week of action after suffering a left leg contusion in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 103-88 loss to the LA Clippers on Saturday.
That possible timeline is based on Doncic missing three games with a similar injury (lower leg contusion) in late October, when he sat out contests against the Sacramento Kings, Portland Trail Blazers and Minnesota Timberwolves.
The good news, however, is that the Lakers are not playing three games in a four-day span like that taxing October schedule. After Tuesday’s contest against the Phoenix Suns, JJ Redick’s team is scheduled to play only two games until Dec. 28, including the Christmas Day clash against the Houston Rockets.
If Doncic’s injury isn’t that severe, he could very well return for Christmas Day, considering the Lakers have listed him day-to-day until further notice.
Luka Doncic Injury
There was a mystery element to Doncic’s injury Saturday as he played the last five minutes of the second quarter, but did not return to the court at the start of the second half. Doncic even threw a nice pass to LeBron James with 1:30 left in the first half after taking several trips to the free-throw line. There was no indication he was injured.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick later revealed that Doncic was not physically able to get back on the court for the third quarter.
“I saw him hobbling towards the end of the first half. He came to me at halftime and said he couldn’t go,” Redick revealed after the game, via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
“I don’t have any other information,” added the second-year head coach.
Lakers Injury Woes Continue
The ESPN report confirmed that Doncic’s injury on Saturday was unrelated to his previous lower leg contusion in October. A Lakers source revealed that Doncic got hurt when he collided with Clippers guard Bogdan Bogdanovic in the second quarter.
The Luka Doncic injury comes amid the Lakers already dealing with injuries to Rui Hachimura (groin), Deandre Ayton (elbow), Austin Reaves (calf strain) and Gabe Vincent (back). However, the positive is that Reaves and Ayton are expected back imminently, and Vincent isn’t expected to miss more than a week.
LeBron James urged his teammates to step up in Doncic’s absence.
“No matter what the circumstances are, it’s still next man up,” James said Saturday’s loss, via ESPN. “We’re all professionals. We all got to stay ready. So, obviously, it’s very challenging circumstances for our ball club tonight, but I think we played extremely hard, we followed our keys. We just came up short.”
Luka Doncic leads the NBA in scoring at 34.1 points per game, to go with his 8.6 rebounds and 8.8 assists. The Slovenian has the opportunity to win his second scoring title after doing so for the first time in 2023-24 — a season that ended with Doncic guiding the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals. As such, there’s a good omen there somewhere for the Lakers if Doncic can sustain his scoring exploits.
