Victor Wembanyama Exits Monday’s Game With Rib Contusion
Spurs star Victor Wembanyama has been ruled out of the second half of Monday’s matchup vs. Philadelphia due to a left rib contusion, the team announced (Twitter link via Jared Weiss of The Athletic).
According to Weiss, the injury occurred in the first half when the French big man fell to the ground. Luke Kornet started the third quarter with Wembanyama sidelined.
The silver lining for Wembanyama is he was able to play 16 minutes in the first half, so the appearance will still count toward the 65-game minimum. The 22-year-old had one previous outing where he played 17 minutes and that will also count toward the games-played requirement.
Wembanyama needs to play at least 20 minutes in one of San Antonio’s final three games to be eligible for major postseason awards. He will be at 64 regular season games if that comes to fruition, and the reason that would be enough to qualify is he played in the NBA Cup final, which counts toward the minimum requirement even though the statistics from that game aren’t officially recorded.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft, Wembanyama had 17 points, five rebounds and three blocks in his 16 minutes Monday. The team was plus-seven when he was on the court.
Assuming he qualifies, Wembanyama is viewed as a lock to win Defensive Player of the Year and appears likely to be a finalist for MVP. He’s a strong candidate for first-team All-NBA as well.
In the latest straw poll from ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, which was released Thursday morning, Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the overwhelming favorite to win his second consecutive MVP award. The Canadian superstar received 88 of the 100 potential first-place votes for a total of 958 points.
Wembanyama, who has touted his own MVP credentials a couple times in recent weeks, was in second place with eight first-place votes and 644 total points. Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who has either won or finished second in MVP voting in each of the past five seasons, was in third with 500 points.
The only other player to receive a first-place vote was Celtics wing Jaylen Brown, who received one and was in fifth place with 123 points. Lakers guard Luka Doncic was fourth with 347 points.
Of course, the bigger concern for the Spurs is the health of their best player as they look to make a deep playoff run. Wembanyama has also been battling right ankle pain the past few weeks, though that injury evidently doesn’t bother him all the time.
Lakers’ Redick Defends Decision To Play Doncic, Reaves In Blowout
The Lakers‘ season took an unfortunate turn last Thursday as Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves were injured during a 134-96 loss to Oklahoma City. Speaking with reporters before Sunday’s game at Dallas, head coach JJ Redick explained his decision to use both players in the second half with the team trailing by a wide margin, per Dan Woike of The Athletic.
Doncic was diagnosed on Friday with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain that could sideline him for a month or more. He plans to seek treatment in Europe in hopes of making a faster recovery. On Saturday, the Lakers learned that Reaves will miss four-to-six weeks with a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury.
Redick said internal medical data didn’t show any signs that Doncic was being overused heading into Thursday. He grabbed at his left hamstring at one point in the first half, but received medical clearance to go back into the game. He suffered the injury early in the third quarter after planting his left leg and again reached for his hamstring.
Reaves experienced a tweak in his left side during the first half of Thursday’s game and went to the locker room to have it checked. He returned in the third quarter and appeared to aggravate the initial injury.
“As a coach, you go on the information you have,” Redick said. “He was medically cleared. When Austin came back, I asked directly. I thought he was hurt. (I was told), ‘No, he’s medically cleared.’ The group wanted to go for it in the second half. Talked about it at halftime. And I think, for both those guys, the nature of playing heavy minutes, that’s certainly a part of, like any equation when you’re trying to manage workloads. We also rely on the tracking data, and we’re looking at that after every game. You know, acceleration, jumps, workload, all of those things.
“And there have been a few times this year where it’s gone, away from the standard deviation of whatever their baseline is, and we make the proper adjustments. There was nothing leading into that game that would suggest either those guys were ‘running hot,’ as we call it.”
Redick also talked about the need to “extend the season” so Doncic and Reaves can return at some point in the playoffs. L.A. is currently tied with Denver at 50-28 and holds the tie-breaker for the No. 3 seed in the West, but a challenging schedule lies ahead with games this week against Oklahoma City, Golden State, Phoenix and Utah.
The Lakers got their first look at what life is going to be like in the meantime in Sunday’s loss to the Mavericks, per Dave McMenamin and Shams Charania of ESPN. L.A. gave up 41 points in the first quarter and trailed by 22 at one point before rallying to make the game close.
They used a starting lineup of LeBron James, Luke Kennard, Deandre Ayton, Rui Hachimura and Jake LaRavia that had never played together before Sunday. McMenamin and Charania note that the group that started the second quarter – James, Jarred Vanderbilt, Jaxson Hayes, Maxi Kleber and Kobe Bufkin – was also playing together for the first time.
James talked about the shock of finding out about Reaves’ absence in the wake of Doncic’s injury.
“I took my nap after practice, and I woke up with that news, it was like another shot to the [head],” James said. “It was a shot to the heart, obviously, and to the chest and to the mainframe with Luka. … But we kind of got that news kind of quick, and AR … we knew he was going to get an MRI, but I woke up from my nap yesterday and then saw that news, and I was like, ‘S–t.’ That was literally my tone.”
James took on a larger role with the other two stars sidelined, but the Lakers are going to be careful not to overuse him for the rest of the regular season, according to Khobi Price of The California Post. He finished with 30 points, nine rebounds and 15 assists in 39 minutes – marking just his sixth 30-point game of the season, along with his highest assist total of 2025/26.
“We did enough intentionally to get him sort of out of actions and not have him involved in every single play when he was out there,” Redick said. “And then there were times when he would get an outlet pass or get the ball and just kind of manipulated the half-court set for us and we got some good stuff.”
Luka Doncic To Seek Treatment In Europe
Lakers guard Luka Doncic will travel to Europe to get medical treatment on his hamstring strain in an attempt to speed up his recovery process, agent Bill Duffy tells Shams Charania of ESPN. The decision was made after conversations with Doncic’s medical team and the team’s medical staff.
Doncic was diagnosed with a Grade 2 hamstring strain on Friday and was ruled out for the rest of the regular season. Though the Lakers didn’t provide a specific timeline for his recovery, outside medical experts have noted that a three-to-six week timeline is typical for such injuries.
Doncic is hoping to either beat that timeline or at least return on the early end of it. While the Lakers aren’t likely to fall further than No. 5 in the Western Conference before the end of the regular season, they’re suddenly quite thin in the backcourt heading into the first round of the playoffs, with Austin Reaves recently ruled out for four-to-six weeks due to an oblique injury.
“Both those guys are going to try to come back, and it’s our job to extend the season so that they can come back,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said on Sunday of Doncic and Reaves.
Injury Notes: Doncic, Embiid, Sabonis, Smart
With Luka Doncic dealing with a Grade 2 hamstring strain ahead of the postseason, the Lakers find themselves in a difficult position after the star guard led them to a strong second half showing.
Mark Medina of Essentially Sports spoke to three medical experts to get a better sense of the star guard’s injury and recovery outlook. They are Shaheen Jadidi, a primary care sports medicine physician at Endeavor Health, Jesse Morse, a sports medicine physician and non-surgical orthopedic specialist, and Nirav Pandya, a professor at UCSF in orthopedic surgery.
“I’m definitely concerned with a short turnaround,” Pandya said. “In general, these Grade 2 strains usually have a three-to-six-week time frame for players to return from that. When you have a short time period to come back into playoff-level intensity basketball, you really worry about two things. One, can a player come back? Two, even if they come back, how impactful can they be?”
Morse explained what the injury actually means for the layperson and how it impacts Doncic’s recovery.
“Grade 2s are partial tears. Think of a rope just to have a mental visual. A one-inch wide rope is now half-an-inch wide. You’re asking that half-an-inch tendon to do 100% of the work,” he said. “This is a minimum three-week injury, but you have to move mountains to get him back in three weeks. Even if he’s sleeping in hyperbaric chambers, doing stem cells and doing around-the-clock physical therapy in red light, he’s going to be at a very high-risk for reinjury. He’s had other hamstring injuries, so he’ll have a lot of scar tissue. The problem is that scar tissue is weaker and less flexible. Traditionally, that’s what leads to reinjury.”
The three experts went deep into what the rehab process will look like, Doncic’s timeline for return, and expectations for how he’ll play once he resumes on-court activity.
We have more injury news from around the league:
- Joel Embiid will miss the Sixers‘ game against the Pistons on Saturday due to oblique injury management and illness. Embiid played on Friday, but had previously expressed frustration with president of basketball operations Daryl Morey and the rest of the team after he was ruled out for Wednesday’s game due to illness. “I guess these guys decide to let me play or not,” Embiid said when asked about playing on Saturday, per Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer (subscriber link). “So whatever they tell me, I guess I got to follow.” Embiid did note that his right oblique, which he strained in February, took a hit in Friday’s game against the Wolves.
- Domantas Sabonis hasn’t suited up for the Kings since February 4 after suffering a left meniscus tear that required season-ending surgery. However, he was in attendance for Friday’s win against the Pelicans, according to Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee, and says that his goal is to return to on-court activity sometime in July (Twitter link). Sabonis told Anderson that he has been on crutches for the past six weeks.
- Lakers guard Marcus Smart will miss his seventh straight game Sunday at Dallas due to a right leg contusion, per Khobi Price of The California Post (Twitter link).
Austin Reaves Out 4-6 Weeks With Oblique Muscle Injury
The Lakers announced that Austin Reaves will miss the remainder of the regular season after being diagnosed with a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury, relays Khobi Price of The California Post (Twitter link). Reaves is expected to miss four-to-six weeks, sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link), which puts his projected return somewhere in the second or third round of the playoffs
Reaves, who left Thursday’s game early, underwent an MRI Saturday in Dallas on his left oblique/rib area, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Reaves tweaked something in his left side during the first half of the lopsided loss to Oklahoma City. He went to the locker room to have it checked, but was able to return to the game, finishing with 15 points in 27 minutes before being removed.
“I went back to get a rebound, overextended a little bit, and I felt something,” Reaves told reporters after the game. “But I feel decent right now, so we’ll see.”
McMenamin adds that Reaves had to get two MRIs done because the first one didn’t focus on the correct portion of his body.
“I don’t know where the chain of command lies with Dallas imaging, but they scanned the wrong area,” coach JJ Redick said. “Not on our end.”
It’s another devastating blow for the Lakers after Luka Doncic was diagnosed Friday with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain that will keep him out for the rest of the season and probably at least the first round of the playoffs.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday before Reaves’ MRI results were announced, Redick said the team is remaining strong in the face of the injuries, and its mission to clinch the No. 3 seed and advance through the first round hasn’t changed. “And we’ll see what happens with Luka,” he added.
Redick plans to expand the scoring responsibilities while Doncic and Reaves are unavailable, mentioning LeBron James, Luke Kennard, Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton as players who can expect to see larger roles in the offense.
Since Reaves returned to the lineup in early February, James has mostly settled in as a third option, contributing in other ways while Doncic and Reaves have been the primary play-makers. Over the past seven games, James is averaging 15.6 points, 7.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists. He’s taking just 11.7 shots per game in that span, well below his career average of 18.6.
“You got to flip the mindset a little bit when your role changes, whatever the case may be, or what’s needed out of [you for] the team,” James said. “So the mindset changes a little bit, for sure.”
Veteran guard Marcus Smart, who has missed the past six games with groin and ankle injuries, is now considered day-to-day, McMenamin adds, but he’s not certain to play against Dallas. Smart wasn’t able to fully participate in Saturday’s practice.
Redick plans to finish the season with an “all hands on deck approach,” stretching his normal rotation from nine to possibly 11 players. He stated that Kobe Bufkin, Nick Smith Jr. and Dalton Knecht will all join the team after participating in the G League playoffs Sunday night with the South Bay Lakers.
The injuries make L.A.’s hold on the third spot in the West somewhat tenuous after it looked solid earlier in the week. The Lakers currently have a one-game lead over Denver and a two-game cushion over Houston. After Sunday’s contest, they’ll host Oklahoma City on Tuesday, travel to Golden State on Thursday and then finish the season with home games against Phoenix on Friday and Utah on Sunday.
Luka Doncic Diagnosed With Grade 2 Left Hamstring Strain
Lakers guard Luka Doncic has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain after undergoing an MRI, the team announced on Friday (Twitter link via Khobi Price of The California Post).
While the Lakers formally ruled Doncic out for the rest of the regular season, they didn’t give any indication how much time he might miss beyond that. The average return timetable for a Grade 2 hamstring strain is 35 days, tweets Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes.
If Doncic, who leads the NBA in points per game, is out over a month, he could miss the entire first round of the playoffs. The full postseason schedule has yet to be released, but the first round begins on April 18.
Los Angeles clinched a playoff spot earlier this week and is currently the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. The Lakers will have to lean heavily on Austin Reaves and LeBron James for scoring and play-making as they look to advance in the postseason.
Doncic appeared to tweak his hamstring with about a minute left in the second quarter of Thursday’s game in Oklahoma City, then pulled up lame on a drive in the third quarter. The Lakers were down 38 points at the time and wound up losing by 43.
Although it’s obviously of lesser importance compared to the Lakers being without their best player, there’s an “extraordinary circumstances challenge” in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that could still allow Doncic to qualify for major postseason awards, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. The superstar guard would have to file an application and have it approved by an “independent expert,” but he appears to have a strong case based on the CBA language, Marks notes (via Twitter).
Doncic is currently at 64 appearances and needed to play one more contest to meet the 65-game requirement. However, he missed two games to travel to Slovenia for the birth of his child, and seems to meet the criteria listed in the CBA:
- It was impracticable for the player to play in one or more of the game(s) he missed due to extraordinary circumstances.
- The player would have played in at least 65 regular season games if he had played every game that he missed due to the extraordinary circumstances.
- As a result of the extraordinary circumstances, and taking into account the totality of the circumstances (including whether the player did not play in other regular season games in which he could have played), it would be unjust to exclude the player from award eligibility.
Doncic would have a 24-hour window in which to apply for the challenge, starting at 12:00 pm ET on the final day of the regular season (April 12). His agent Billy Duffy confirmed to Shams Charania of ESPN that he plans to fill out the application on behalf of his client (Twitter link).
If he is granted eligibility by the arbitrator, Doncic is a top contender to make his fifth first-team All-NBA appearance in six years. He averaged 33.5 points, 8.3 assists, 7.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 35.8 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .476/.366/.780.
Pacific Notes: Doncic, Jackson, Harris, Gillespie
If Lakers star Luka Doncic can’t play the remainder of the regular season — which seems likely due to his hamstring injury — he would be the first scoring leader to not make an All-NBA team since 1976, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press.
Doncic needs to play in one more game to reach the 65-game threshold for All-NBA consideration. The star guard is averaging 33.5 points per game, nearly two more than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (31.6), who’s second in the league. In 1976, Bob McAdoo won his third consecutive scoring title and was second in the MVP race but didn’t make All-NBA.
On a related topic, Doncic’s absence will test the team’s depth, Thuc Nhi Nguyen of the Los Angeles Times points out. Marcus Smart has missed the last six games with an ankle sprain, though he could return this weekend. Bronny James could see his backcourt role expand in Doncic’s absence.
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- The Clippers, who are already dealing with a number of frontcourt injuries, may not have Isaiah Jackson for the rest of the season. Jackson has a high ankle sprain and will not join the team on its road trip. He will be out at least one week, Janis Carr of the Orange County Register tweets.
- The Kings’ NBA G League GM, Gabriel Harris, is heading to the college ranks, as he’ll be named the University of Memphis Tigers’ general manager, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets. Harris and the Stockton Kings won the 2025 G League championship.
- Collin Gillespie, who is headed to free agency this summer, set the Suns’ franchise record for three-pointers in a season on Thursday night, according to The Associated Press. Gillespie set the mark in the second quarter of the Suns’ 127-107 loss to the Hornets. He made his 227th three-pointer from the wing, surpassing the record of 226 threes, set by Quentin Richardson in the 2004/05 season. “It’s a great accomplishment,” Gillespie said. “And I’m extremely grateful and thankful to everybody here for helping me, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really mean much right now with the loss.”
Luka Doncic To Undergo MRI Friday After Injuring Hamstring
Lakers superstar Luka Doncic sustained a left hamstring injury in Thursday’s game at Oklahoma City and will not return, per the team. The Slovenian guard will undergo an MRI on Friday to determine the severity of the injury, sources tell Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link).
Doncic’s injury occurred with 7:42 remaining in the third quarter (Twitter link). The Lakers were down 38 points at the time and wound up losing by 43, their largest margin of defeat this season, tweets Jovan Buha.
Doncic actually initially tweaked his hamstring in with about a minute left in the first half, notes Khobi Price of The California Post (Twitter video link). Head coach JJ Redick said after the game that Doncic was cleared to return for the second half despite the lopsided score, according to Dan Woike of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Any type of lengthy absence for Doncic would be devastating to Los Angeles’ chances of making a run in the postseason. He had been on an incredible tear leading up to Thursday, helping guide the Lakers to a 15-2 record in March (14-2 when he played) en route to winning Western Conference Player of the Month. The 27-year-old was also nominated for Defensive Player of the Month.
Doncic became one of just 10 players in league history to record in 600 points in any calendar month. He did so across 16 contests in March, for an average of 37.5 points per game. That run included a 60-point game, a 51-point game, and five additional outings of at least 40 points.
Doncic, who was named first-team All-NBA five consecutive times from 2019-24, would likely be ineligible for major postseason awards if he misses the remainder of the regular season. The Lakers play five more times before the regular season ends on April 12.
Through 63 games (35.9 minutes per contest), Doncic was averaging a league-high 33.8 points, 8.3 assists, 7.9 rebounds and 1.7 steals, with a shooting line of .477/.369/.779. He made his 64th appearance on Thursday, but he played between 15 and 20 minutes in two of those games, which means he’d need to play 20-plus minutes in one additional contest to meet the 65-game minimum. While there’s an exception in the 65-game rule for players who suffer season-ending injuries, it only applies if the player has suited up for at least 85% of his team’s games and his injury is deemed likely to sideline him through May 31.
Law Murray of The Athletic points out that Doncic previously missed four games because of that same left hamstring and was recently suspended one game after accumulating 16 technical fouls (Twitter link).
Austin Reaves, who has been battling multiple nagging injuries, was also less than 100% during Thursday’s blowout loss, Woike writes for The Athletic. He went to the locker room to be checked out in the first half and returned for the second, but exited the game for good in the third quarter.
Luka Doncic, Jalen Johnson Named Players Of The Month
Lakers guard Luka Doncic and Hawks forward Jalen Johnson have been named the NBA’s Players of the Month for March in the Western Conference and Eastern Conference, respectively, the league announced today (Twitter link).
It was a monster scoring month for Doncic, who became one of just 10 players in league history to pour in 600 points in any calendar month. He did so across 16 contests, for an average of 37.5 points per night. That run included a 60-point game, a 51-point game, and five additional outings of at least 40 points.
The star guard also contributed 8.0 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game while posting a shooting line of .492/.392/.794. The Lakers went 15-2 in March (14-2 when Doncic played), and the 27-year-old was even recognized for his defensive contributions — he was a Defensive Player of the Month nominee after averaging 2.3 steals per night.
The Hawks have been another one of the NBA’s hottest teams as of late, with Johnson playing a crucial role in their recent success. Atlanta went 13-2 in March (11-2 when Johnson played) and he averaged 22.4 PPG, 8.5 RPG, and 8.5 APG while shooting 48.9% from the floor, 39.2% from beyond the arc, and 80.7% from the free throw line.
Johnson’s best games of the month came against conference rivals, including a 35-point, 10-rebound performance vs. Philadelphia on March 7 and a 24-point, 15-rebound, 13-assist triple-double against Orlando on March 16.
It’s the second time this season and the seventh time in his career that Doncic has been named a Player of the Month. He beat out fellow nominees Kevin Durant of the Rockets, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Thunder, Kawhi Leonard of the Clippers, Victor Wembanyama of the Spurs, and Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray of the Nuggets, according to the NBA (Twitter link).
Johnson, meanwhile, is a first-time Player of the Month winner. The other nominees in the Eastern Conference were his Hawks teammate Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Hornets guard LaMelo Ball, Celtics wing Jaylen Brown, Cavaliers guard James Harden, Magic teammates Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane, and the Knicks duo of Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Victor Wembanyama, Ausar Thompson Win Defensive Awards For March
Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama has been named the Western Conference’s Defensive Player of the Month for a third straight time. After winning the award for January and February, Wembanyama has also claimed it for March, the NBA announced today (via Twitter).
The overwhelming favorite to be this season’s Defensive Player of the Year, Wembanyama continued to anchor one of the league’s best defenses across 15 outings in March, racking up a league-high 56 blocks (3.7 per game) and 20 steals (1.3 per game) for the month. According to the league, the star big man also ranked second in the league by contesting 11.6 per game in March as he led San Antonio to a 14-1 record (the Spurs lost a second game in which he didn’t play).
While Wembanyama is the only player to win three Defensive Player of the Month awards this season, Pistons wing Ausar Thompson joins him as the league’s only other multi-time winner, having earned the Eastern Conference honor for March. Thompson was also the East’s Defensive Player of the Month in January.
Thompson now leads the NBA in steals per game after racking up 32 in 13 March appearances (2.5 per game). In addition to ranking first in steals per game for the month, he also led the league in deflections per game, with 4.8, and contributed 1.1 blocks per night as well.
According to the NBA (Twitter link), the other Western Conference nominees included four usual suspects – Trail Blazers center Donovan Clingan, Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, Clippers guard Kris Dunn, and Thunder big man Chet Holmgren – along with one surprise: Lakers guard Luka Doncic.
In the East, Thompson beat out fellow nominees Scottie Barnes of the Raptors, Evan Mobley of the Cavaliers, OG Anunoby of the Knicks, and Hawks teammates Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Dyson Daniels.