Luka Dončić remains sidelined with hamstring
- Los Angeles advanced Friday by beating Houston 98-78 in Game 6, but Luka Dončić still did not play and remains out with a left hamstring strain. - The injury dates to April 2 against Oklahoma City, and the Lakers initially ruled him out through the regular season after an MRI showed a Grade 2 strain. - That matters now because the Lakers’ next opponent is the top-seeded Thunder, so Dončić’s unclear return timetable suddenly becomes a second-round issue.
The Lakers got the result they needed. Luka Dončić still didn’t. Los Angeles closed out Houston 98-78 in Game 6 on Friday night and moved into the second round, but Dončić remained sidelined with the left hamstring injury that has kept him out for a month. So the story has shifted a bit — this is no longer about whether he can make it back for the end of round one. It’s about whether the Lakers can get him back at all, and whether that happens in time for Oklahoma City. ### What exactly is the injury? It’s a Grade 2 strain in Dončić’s left hamstring. He suffered it on April 2 during the Lakers’ blowout loss to the Thunder, and an MRI the next day confirmed the severity. Grade 2 is the annoying middle ground — not a tiny tweak, not a full tear, but serious enough that teams stop talking in days and start talking in weeks. The Lakers ruled him out for the rest of the regular season. ### Why is he still out a month later? Because hamstrings are tricky, and playoff urgency doesn’t really change that. The rough timeline attached to a Grade 2 strain is often about a month, sometimes longer, and that’s before you factor in conditioning, cutting, and the risk of re-injury. A player can look fine doing straight-line work and still be nowhere near ready for real playoff minutes. That seems to be where this is — some progress, but no firm return date. ### What changed Friday night? The Lakers bought themselves time. By beating Houston in Game 6, they avoided a winner-take-all Game 7 and advanced to face Oklahoma City in the Western Conference semifinals. That matters because every extra day is useful when the injury is a soft-tissue strain and the team is clearly being cautious. But the catch is that “more time” doesn’t necessarily mean a green light. ### How much have the Lakers missed him? A lot — even if they survived round one without him. Before the injury, Dončić was averaging 33.5 points, 8.3 assists, and 7.7 rebounds, and he had become the engine of the Lakers’ late-season surge. He either scored or assisted on 58% of the team’s points in March. That kind of usage doesn’t get replaced by one hot shooter or one lineup tweak. It gets patched together. ### Why does the Thunder matchup matter so much? Because Oklahoma City is the team Dončić got hurt against, and now it’s the team waiting in round two. The Thunder also finished above everyone in the West, so the level of difficulty jumps immediately. Against Houston, the Lakers could win with defense, LeBron James control, and enough supplementary scoring. Again. ### Is there any real timeline yet? Not really. That’s the clearest answer. The public line remains vague, and the most consistent detail across the latest updates is that there is still no firm timetable. You can infer that the Lakers are prioritizing a safe ramp-up over a symbolic early return — especially with a hamstring, where one bad push can restart the whole clock. But that’s still an inference, not a date on the calendar. ### Bottom line The news is simple now — the Lakers moved on, but Dončić didn’t. His injury is no longer just a first-round subplot. It’s one of the main variables in the next series.
