The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a serious blow on Thursday when Luka Doncic sustained a hamstring injury in the third quarter of their 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was diagnosed with a Grade 2 hamstring strain and will be out for at least the rest of the regular season.
He has been having an amazing regular season and was just named the Western Conference Player of the Month for March. Alas, he is set to be ineligible for any end-of-season individual awards because he has played 64 games, one short of the minimum number required to receive such awards.
Per Shams Charania of ESPN, Bill Duffy, Doncic’s agent, will apply for a special exemption so that the superstar can still receive individual honors for this season.
“This season, Luka Doncic has performed at a historic level, leading the league in scoring, carrying the Lakers to third place in the Western Conference and placing himself in the middle of one of the most tightly contested MVP races in memory. To ensure that Luka’s incredible accomplishments this season are rightly honored and he can be considered for the league’s end-of-season awards, we intend to apply for an ‘Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge’ to the 65-game rule,” Duffy said in a statement to ESPN.
“Luka missed two games this season for the birth of his second child in Slovenia. His daughter was born on Dec. 4, on another continent, and yet he was back in the United States competing with his team on Dec. 6. Luka has gone to great lengths to show up for his team and this league this season. His record-breaking season deserves to be noted in the history books, despite last night’s unfortunate injury and other extraordinary circumstances. We look forward to working with the NBAPA and the league office to ensure a fair outcome in this matter.”
Doncic is leading the NBA in scoring average, and overall, he’s averaging 33.5 points on 47.6% field-goal shooting and 36.6% from 3-point range, 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.6 steals a game this season. His sensational play in March put him, at worst, on the periphery of the MVP discussion, and his defense, long the main bone of contention for him, has even improved.
The Lakers are 50-27 and in third place in the Western Conference. They have five regular-season games remaining, and as of this writing, they will need to win four of those contests to clinch the third seed.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Luka Doncic could still end up being eligible for end-of-season awards
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
