Former Chicago Bulls guard Jaden Ivey has blamed Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick for Luka Doncic’s untimely hamstring injury.
While reacting live to Doncic’s injury against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday, Ivey felt that Redick should not have kept his best player in the game when the Lakers were down 90-58 in the third quarter.
“Why is Luka in the game down 30? JJ knows better than that,” Ivey wrote on X.
Some analysts and fans have also criticized Redick and the Lakers’ medical staff for keeping Doncic in the game even after he had a hamstring issue in the first half, for which he received treatment at halftime.
JJ Redick Defends Lakers Decision
“There was no reason to keep him in,” wrote Lake Show Life’s Tyler Watts.
“The Lakers weren’t defeating the Thunder. The game was over after the first quarter. Luka was clearly hurt. Redick didn’t protect his star, and now the entire Lakers nation is paying the price.”
Redick said after the Lakers’ 139-97 loss that the team’s medical staff cleared Doncic to return to the court after evaluating his hamstring.
“We checked him out. He got work done. He was cleared,” Redick said. “Again, we’re not going to put a player at risk. Those things happen.”
“It was discussed at halftime,” Redick added.
“We thought we’d give those guys about six minutes and then we were going to — if we didn’t cut into the lead — we were going to pull them.”
Luka Doncic Injury Update
The Lakers received the worst possible news on Friday when an MRI on Doncic confirmed a grade 2 tear, with recovery usually lasting from 3 to 6 weeks. As a result, Doncic will miss the last five games of the regular season and possibly the first round of a playoff series against the Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, or Denver Nuggets — depending on the final Western Conference standings.
Since Doncic suffered the injury in his 64th game of the season, he is technically ineligible for end-of-season awards and All-NBA honors. However, Doncic and his agency plan to submit an “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge,” arguing that the Slovenian missed two games when he traveled back to his home country for the birth of his second daughter in December.
“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,” Doncic’s agent, Bill Duffy, wrote in a statement on Friday.
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.”
The Lakers’ NBA title odds have significantly decreased since Luka Doncic’s injury — shifting from 30-1 to 125-1 on FanDuel Sportsbook.
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