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LeBron James practically carried the Los Angeles Lakers into the second round of the NBA Playoffs. Coach JJ Redick did see massive performances from Luke Kennard, Marcus Smart, and Deandre Ayton but the Oklahoma City Thunder are going to be a bigger challenge. This is why many want to see Shai Gilgeous-Alexander face Luka Doncic in this series. However, it looks like an injury will prevent that from happening.
Lakers reveal Doncic's Game 1 injury status vs. Thunder
Luka Doncic will not be playing in Game 1 against the Thunder. The Lakers listed their star guard as out in the most recent status report, per Marc Stein. This means that either Jarred Vanderbilt, LeBron James, Marcus Smart, or Austin Reaves will be assigned match up against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Notably, Doncic is suffering a Grade 2 left hamstring strain. Poetically, the last game he played with the Lakers was against the Thunder back in April 2 and has been out since. The Lakers have sent him to Europe to treat the injury and he has since came back to see LeBron James lead his team to a 4-2 series win against the Houston Rockets.
There have been a lot of reports surrounding the Lakers star's injury. But, there is one constant when it comes all of them. It is that he is not yet ready and will likely not be that way for a good chunk of this NBA Playoffs series against the Thunder.
Brian Windhorst even went on to say that Lakers fans should not be expecting Doncic anytime soon yet, ""He is not close, there is a whole ramp up that is required when you are coming back from a hamstring, and he has not started that contact ramp up yet. I don't know where they'll be in 10 days, but do not expect to see Luka the first few games of this series."
Coach JJ Redick will have to rely on the same squad to either extend this NBA Playoffs series against the Thunder for Doncic's return or just get the whole thing done without any expectations of their star coming back.
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