{"id":29387,"date":"2026-05-02T03:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T03:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=29387"},"modified":"2026-05-02T03:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T03:42:13","slug":"when-is-lakers-star-coming-back-in-nba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=29387","title":{"rendered":"When is Lakers star coming back in NBA playoffs?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div id=\"videoWrap\" class=\"spacer-large videoWrap\" style=\"position:relative\">\n<div id=\"uwVideoPlaceholder\" style=\"z-index:19;width:100%;padding-bottom:56.25%;position:relative\">\n<div class=\"vidplaybtn\" style=\"display:-moz-box;display:-ms-flexbox;display:-webkit-flex;display:flex;border:2px solid #fff;border-radius:80px;cursor:pointer;height:80px;width:80px;position:absolute;top:50%;left:50%;z-index:10\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"vidplayicon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/appservices\/universal-web\/universal\/icons\/icon-play-alt-white.svg\" alt=\"play\" style=\"height:40px;margin:auto 18px auto 27px;width:40px\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"videoDetails\" class=\"videoDetails\" style=\"padding-top:8px;padding-bottom:8px\">\n<div id=\"videoDetailsContainer\" class=\"videoDetailsContainer\" hidden=\"\">NBA considers radical \u20183-2-1\u2019 draft lottery to fight tanking<\/p>\n<p>The NBA is weighing a new \u20183-2-1\u2019 draft lottery aimed at punishing tanking but critics warn it could keep bad teams stuck at the bottom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The absence of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/los-angeles-lakers\/13\/\" data-autotag=\"4d34a300-3059-4ec4-a4d3-4d636ac95816\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> guard Luka Doncic hasn&#8217;t affected the team so far in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/lakers\/2026\/04\/30\/austin-reaves-los-angeles-lakers-houston-rockets-nba-playoffs-game-5\/89868349007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">their first-round Western Conference matchup<\/a> against the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/houston-rockets\/10\/\" data-autotag=\"13a51ca7-e216-40c0-a272-58d18f5541d7\">Houston Rockets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers took the first three games of the series, but have dropped the last two, including a 99-93 loss in Game 5.<\/p>\n<p>The Rockets are looking to become the first NBA team to force a Game 7 since the Boston Celtics in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals against the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/miami-heat\/14\/\" data-autotag=\"2fc7081f-f0b3-4b1d-b589-781c9028a4e7\">Miami Heat<\/a>. Each of the three previous NBA teams that forced a series finale down 0-3 lost Game 7.<\/p>\n<p>Doncic was injured on April 2 against the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/oklahoma-city-thunder\/25\/\" data-autotag=\"cd165858-eeda-4db8-a84a-db7a782e61e3\">Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>, diagnosed with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, and hasn&#8217;t played since.<\/p>\n<p>Should the Lakers advance, their opponent will be\u00a0the Thunder, who beat Los Angeles in all four regular-season meetings, winning by an average of 22 points per game. Doncic is not expected to be ready for the start of that series because of the injury.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/lakers\/2026\/05\/01\/luka-doncic-injury-update-nba-playoffs\/89889792007\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NBA considers radical \u20183-2-1\u2019 draft lottery to fight tanking The NBA is weighing a new \u20183-2-1\u2019 draft lottery aimed at punishing tanking but critics warn it could keep bad teams stuck at the bottom. The absence of Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic hasn&#8217;t affected the team so far in their first-round Western Conference matchup &#8230; <a title=\"When is Lakers star coming back in NBA playoffs?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=29387\" aria-label=\"Read more about When is Lakers star coming back in NBA playoffs?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/When-is-Lakers-star-coming-back-in-NBA-playoffs.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29389,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29387\/revisions\/29389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}