{"id":120053,"date":"2026-05-08T04:12:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/luka-doncic-opens-up-on-lakers-playoff-fight-without-him\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T04:12:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:12:26","slug":"luka-doncic-opens-up-on-lakers-playoff-fight-without-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/luka-doncic-opens-up-on-lakers-playoff-fight-without-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic Opens Up On Lakers\u2019 Playoff Fight Without Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Luka Doncic may still be stuck on the sidelines, but the injured superstar has loved watching the Los Angeles Lakers continue battling through the postseason without him.<\/p>\n

After suffering a Grade two left hamstring strain late in the regular season, many expected the Lakers\u2019 playoff hopes to disappear quickly.<\/p>\n

Instead, players like Marcus Smart, Rui Hachimura and Luke Kennard stepped into larger roles alongside LeBron James to help push Los Angeles past the Houston Rockets in the first round.<\/p>\n

Now facing the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round, Doncic admitted he has been blown away by how the roster has responded in his absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything. Everybody helped us out,\u201d Doncic told<\/a> reporters in Oklahoma City. \u201cWe proved that we can play. Everybody stepped up, it\u2019s truly amazing to see. So hopefully they continue that.\u201d<\/p>\n

James has carried much of the spotlight during this stretch, but the Lakers have needed contributions everywhere to survive. Smart and Kennard helped ease the pressure as secondary ball handlers, while Hachimura continued providing reliable perimeter shooting and defensive versatility throughout the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Even while unavailable, Doncic said he has tried to stay engaged from the bench and help wherever possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, just talk to them a little bit more,\u201d Doncic added. \u201cTell them what I see. But the way they\u2019re playing has been amazing, like I said. Not much I can do, I just try to give them some advice but obviously we have a lot of players that have been in this situation so they know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being proud of the Lakers\u2019 playoff run, Doncic admitted the injury remains difficult to accept considering how well the team had been playing before he went down.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely, yeah. I still think that,\u201d Doncic said when asked whether the Lakers looked like title contenders before his injury. \u201cWe had an amazing month of March and the injury came at the worst moment probably for me. I think other guys have stepped up really good, but it was very, very frustrating for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Grim Luka Doncic Injury Update<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luka Doncic may still be stuck on the sidelines, but the injured superstar has loved watching the Los Angeles Lakers continue battling through the postseason without him. After suffering a Grade two left hamstring strain late in the regular season, many expected the Lakers\u2019 playoff hopes to disappear quickly. Instead, players like Marcus Smart, Rui […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}