LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers grabbed a come from behind win, 119-115, against the visiting Philadelphia 76ers, but the major concern following the game was the status of Luka Doncic who exited the game in the first half due to what was being called a leg injury, and he did not return to action.
Following the Lakers’ win against the 76ers, head coach JJ Redick provided a brief update on the injury status of Luka Doncic.
“He felt some soreness in his hamstring. He didn’t feel like it was good enough to go back in and neither did medical, so we held him out, Redick said. “He’ll get some imaging, too early to say if it’s an injury, but he just a sore hamstring.”
Prior to leaving the game, Doncic had 10 points, four rebounds and two assists. He shot 3-of-10 from the field, missed all four of his 3-point attempts and went a perfect 4-of-4 in 16 minutes.
Doncic has dealt with a couple of nagging injury issues this year, but he’s continued his blistering season atop the NBA in scoring at 33.4 points. He’s also averaging 7.9 rebounds, 8.7 assists and 1.5 steals with splits of 47.5 percent shooting from the field, 34.8 percent shooting from the 3-point line and 77.9 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
After the game, Marcus Smart expressed concern for Doncic while acknowledging that the team doesn’t yet have a full picture as to what his status is.
“We had to finish the game so unfortunately we didn’t get to see how bad it was,” Smart said. “But we’re hoping it’s not that bad, hopefully he’s okay. . .but if he’s going to be out, obviously it’s going to take everybody to tighten up a little more. It does help to have AR [Austin Reaves] back if that’s the case, but it’s definitely going to take a full team effort now, more than ever, if he is out for a long period of time.”
