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.