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Luka Doncic injury: Austin Reaves confronts Thunder fan in NSFW dispute after Lakers star goes down

Danby: Daniel Hager04/03/26DanielHagerOn3

Thursday night’s highly anticipated game against the defending NBA Champion Oklahoma City Thunder was nothing short of a disaster for the Los Angeles Lakers. And it had nothing to do with the score.

Los Angeles, winners of 13 of its prior 14 games, was absolutely decimated by OKC 139-96. The Thunder held a commanding 44-21 lead after just one quarter, and cruised over the final three quarters to a 43-point victory.

Along with suffering the blowout loss, MVP candidate Luka Doncic suffered a left hamstring injury in the game and did not return. As Doncic was down on the court, a fan threw a verbal jab at the five-time All-NBA First Teamer. “Now you know what it’s like to play defense,” the fan said.

Doncic’s teammate, Austin Reaves, did not take kindly to this.

“Shut the f**k up,” Reaves shouted in frustration. “Shut up. He’s f*****g hurt. F**k you. Come on, man. That’s some bulls**t. He’s down hurt. That’s some bulls**t. Have some f*****g respect. Have some f*****g respect, buddy.”

Luka Doncic is averaging league-high 33.5 points this season

If Doncic is out for an extended period of time, it will serve as a monstrous blow to Los Angeles’ best season since 2019-20 (won NBA Finals). The Slovenian native was fully in the thick of the MVP race, and the Lakers were seen as potential threats to prevent Oklahoma City from repeating as Western Conference Champions. Due to Luka’s injury, however, it might just be up to Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs to stand in the Thunder’s way.

In his first full season with the Lakers, Doncic is averaging a league-high 33.5 points. He is also averaging 8.3 assists (third most in NBA) and 7.7 rebounds, shooting 47.6% from the field and 36.6% from three-point range. He looked to be a lock to be selected to his sixth All-NBA First Team, but if he fails to play in either of Los Angeles’ final five regular season games, he will fall below the NBA’s 65-game minimum to be selected for Season Awards.

“We checked him out, he got worked on, he was cleared. We’re not gonna put a player at risk,” Lakers head coach J.J. Redick said postgame. “Those things happen.”

With five regular season games remaining, the Los Angeles Lakers sit at 50-27. That’s good for the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. They have won at least 50 regular season games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2009-2011.