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Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Dončić is reportedly set to return to Los Angeles on Friday (April 17) after receiving multiple injections for his Grade 2 left hamstring strain in Spain, sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to ESPN's Shams Charania on Monday (April 13).
The Lakers enter the NBA Playoffs as the No. 4 seed and will host the Houston Rockets in Game 1 of their first-round series on Saturday (April 18), though the team hasn't provided a timeline for his possible return. Last week, Shams Charania and Dave McMenamin reported that Dončić, 27, took the trip to Europe to potentially expedite his return to play.
"After consultation with Lakers doctors and his own medical team, Luka Doncic will seek specialized medical treatment in Europe on his Grade 2 left hamstring in an attempt to expedite his return to play, agent Bill Duffy of WME Basketball tells me and @mcten," Charania wrote on his X account.
Dončić underwent an MRI in Dallas earlier in the afternoon after suffering the injury during the third quarter of a 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on April 2. A Grade 2 strain typically takes a month to recover from and the Lakers didn't provide an exact timetable for his return beyond the final five remaining regular season games, which included a loss to the Dallas Mavericks, Dončić's former team.
Dončić recorded 33.5 points, 8.3 assists (third among NBA players), 7.7 rebounds (second among guards) and 1.6 steals per game (sixth in the NBA) in 64 games at the time of his injury.