LOS ANGELES: NBA scoring leader Luka Doncic will have an MRI exam on Friday after he left the Los Angeles Lakers’ game against Philadelphia with a left leg injury.
Doncic limped to the locker room with 3:03 left in the first half Thursday night after apparently feeling pain in his hamstring on the far end of the court moments earlier. He didn’t return to the court when the second half began, and the Lakers announced Doncic was done for the night due to left leg soreness.
“He didn’t feel like it was good enough to go back in (to the game),” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “Neither did (the) medical (staff), so we held him out. He’ll get some imaging. Too early to (diagnose) the injury. Just a sore hamstring.”
Doncic began the night leading the NBA with 33.4 points per game in his first full season with the Lakers despite missing eight games with different leg injuries. The Slovenian superstar is second in the league with 8.7 assists and he has also grabbed 7.9 rebounds per game.
He had 10 points, four rebounds and five turnovers during the Lakers’ rough first half against the Sixers, missing all four of his 3-point attempts. After falling behind by 16 early in the second half, Los Angeles impressively rallied for a 119-115 victory led by Austin Reaves, who scored 35 points in just 25 minutes during his second game back from a 19-game absence with a calf injury.
“I talked to (Doncic) a little bit at halftime, asked if he was OK, and he kind of just looked at me,” Reaves said. “Hopefully it’s nothing major. We need him. He’s our best player and the engine of a lot of stuff that we do. Hopefully it’ll be good news tomorrow.”
Doncic left the arena with a slight limp in his step.
The Lakers could be forgiven for feeling frustration after yet another injury to one of their three stars.
Doncic, Reaves and LeBron James were all playing together for only the 10th time in Los Angeles’ 50 games this season before Doncic got hurt against the Sixers. The Lakers are still in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race at 31-19 despite not knowing what they could look like at full strength for a prolonged period.
James missed the first 14 games of the season with sciatica, and Reaves only returned last Tuesday night in the Lakers’ win at Brooklyn to close their eight-game road trip.
Reaves appears to be back in top form already after his scoring barrage while playing on a minutes restriction. He went 12 of 17 from the field and hit five 3-pointers along with six rebounds.
“When you get hurt, obviously there’s a period where you don’t do much, and then for the last two or three weeks, I’ve been grinding,” Reaves said. “I’ve played many stay-ready games. ... The amount of time I actually played, I felt like I got a good jump from that. You don’t expect to be ready right off the bat, but I feel like we did a good job of trying to keep my rhythm.”
Doncic was the NBA’s Western Conference player of the month for January after averaging 34.0 points on 50.6 percent shooting with 7.2 rebounds, 9.1 assists and 1.5 steals in a dominant stretch of play.
He was also selected for his sixth All-Star game, voted in as a starter for the annual event at Intuit Dome in nearby Inglewood, California, next weekend.
Luka Doncic to have an MRI after leaving Lakers’ game against 76ers with left hamstring injury
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Luka Doncic to have an MRI after leaving Lakers’ game against 76ers with left hamstring injury
- NBA scoring leader Luka Doncic left the Los Angeles Lakers’ game against Philadelphia with a leg injury
- The Slovenian superstar is also second with 8.7 assists. He was also selected for his sixth All-Star game, voted in as a starter
Gooch, Detry and Uihlein share lead at halfway stage in Riyadh
- Smash GC lead the team competition at LIV Golf Riyadh with score of 30-under
RIYADH: Three shots separate the top 13 players after 36 holes here for the LIV Golf season opener.
The competition shifted up a gear for the second round of the Roshn Group LIV Golf Riyadh 2026, as the world’s best continued to battle under the lights, with cooler and windier conditions in round two.
With the event reaching its midway point, the leaderboard has begun to take shape, setting the stage for a high-stakes weekend in the Saudi capital.
Talor Gooch (Smash GC) has joined overnight leaders Thomas Detry (4Aces GC) and Peter Uihlein (RangeGoats GC) after Thursday night’s round, carding a consecutive five-under 67 to move to 10-under for the tournament with 36 holes to play.
Sitting one back from the leaders on nine-under after carding an under-four 68 in round two, Sebastian Munoz (Torque GC) reflected on his round: “It started a bit slow with a bogey on No. 2. I hit a bad bunker shot.
“Then after that I made some good birdies and kept it moving along. The wind came over, and I was able to kind of keep my focus and keep hitting good shots and keep giving myself good chances, and made some birdies on the back.
“Then I made some solid pars coming in. So really happy where the game is at.”
Meanwhile, first-round co-leader Detry remained firmly in the hunt, following up his opening 65 with a steady three-under 69 as he continues to embrace the atmosphere on course.
“Got off to a pretty shaky start. It was a bogey-free round yesterday, but today I felt a little uncomfortable early on. I managed to sort of settle the ship then with two birdies on holes No. 4 and 5, and then just fought hard.
The temperature sort of dropped after nine holes and the wind picked up, as well. I wasn’t really expecting that. It was sort of a bit of a fight out there, which was nice. I like it.”
“I was sort of out there taking care of my business, and suddenly I saw the leaderboard with the 4Aces GC popping up, and that sort of reminded me that I was also playing for the team, which is great.”
After shooting a five-under 67 for the second time in his two rounds Gooch commented: “Yeah, it was a really solid day. Really good ball control. The only bogey made was a three-putt from about 15 feet (4.5 meters).
“Made life really simple today. Hit a bumping of greens, gave myself some good looks and made a few. These are the type of days of golf that you wish you could have more of.”
On his first experience as captain of Smash GC, he said: “I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the year through the first two rounds. We’ve still got a lot of golf left, so we’ve got to go and continue to play great.
“But like I said, I couldn’t have predicted or hoped for a better start. It’s a great start, and hopefully we can continue going and just set the tone for a great year after this first week.”
Gooch’s Smash GC teammate Jason Kokrak fired a bogey-free eight-under to storm the leaderboard and get within two shots of the leaders. “It was really good. Got into a couple sticky situations but made a couple of nice par saves,” he said.
“Got hot for about a nine- or 10-hole stretch. Drove the ball very nicely. Way better than yesterday. So very pleased with how I played.”
Uihlein is eager to bring his fine form into the weekend after shooting a three-under 69 in round two. When asked about the potential of bringing home his first LIV Golf trophy, he said: “Yeah, it would be awesome.
“That’s what we want to do. We want to win individually. We want to win as a team. But winning individually? Yeah, that’s what the goal is, to win.
“Now that we get world ranking points, you can jump up in the OWGR (Official World Golf Ranking) and try to get in the majors. That’s definitely the goal.”
In the team standings, Smash GC (-30) took a commanding lead after those low scores from Kokrak and Gooch. Torque GC (-27) and 4Aces GC (-23) stay firmly in the race for the podium with all four player scores counting for all four rounds this season.
Round 2 – Individual Leaderboard:
1 – Talor Gooch (Smash GC) | R2 (-5) - After R2 (-10)
1 – Peter Uihlein (RangeGoats GC) | R2 (-3) - After R2 (-10)
1 – Thomas Detry (4Aces GC) | R2 (-3) - After R2 (-10)
Round 1 – Team Leaderboard:
1 – Smash GC (-30)
2 – Torque GC (-27)
3 – 4Aces GC (-23)
