DALLAS — The third opportunity for disgruntled Dallas Mavericks fans to cheer Luka Doncic since the miserable trade of 2025 fell flat Sunday. After suffering a Grade 2 hamstring strain Thursday in Oklahoma City, The Beloved One is done for the regular season and the Los Angeles Lakers are simply hoping they can survive a few playoff games to welcome his return. "His goal is to be back at some ...

Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers reacts from the floor after a play during the second half against the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Paycom Center on April 2, 2026, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Cooper Neill/Getty Images North America/TNS

DALLAS — The third opportunity for disgruntled Dallas Mavericks fans to cheer Luka Doncic since the miserable trade of 2025 fell flat Sunday. After suffering a Grade 2 hamstring strain Thursday in Oklahoma City, The Beloved One is done for the regular season and the Los Angeles Lakers are simply hoping they can survive a few playoff games to welcome his return.

"His goal is to be back at some point, and it’s our job to extend the season," Lakers coach JJ Redick said before Sunday night’s national NBC game at the American Airlines Center. Redick is just two years removed from being on the opposite side of the microphone in these interview sessions, so I asked if the ESPN version of Redick might have questioned the loss of a superstar in the third quarter while sporting a 30-point deficit.

"No, because I’ve been in those situations a million times as a player, and as a coach, you go through all the information that you have. He was cleared to play [at halftime after tweaking the hamstring], I asked him directly, and he wanted to go for it in the second half," Redick said.

If this feels like familiar ground, it was in the final regular-season game of 2022 that Doncic suffered a milder calf strain and was forced to miss the first three games of the Utah series. Dallas held a 2-1 lead on the Jazz when Doncic returned as the team advanced to the Western Conference finals in Jason Kidd’s first season as head coach before falling to the Golden State Warriors.

"That was the coming out party for [Jalen] Brunson to show he can run a team," said Kidd, which, of course, is exactly what happened. Also helped shove him out the door to the New York Knicks as a free agent, where Brunson is hoping for a return to the Eastern Conference finals if not more.

For Luka, it means his season stops at 64 games, one short of the minimum required to be considered for MVP voting or all-league teams. His agent, Bill Duffy, has petitioned the NBA for an exception, citing the fact that Luka missed two games while flying to Europe for the birth of his second child. He also missed a recent game as a result of having acquired his 16th technical foul, although I suspect Duffy is not focusing on that one. Eliminate the most nonsensical portion of Luka’s game — far more frustrating, really, than the occasional indifference to defense — and he would have already reached 65.

"It’s unfortunate, not just for Luka but for others in that same situation," Kidd said. "Again, Luka is having an MVP season. He was playing at a very, very high level and for him to get hurt and not to get rewarded for that season is unfortunate."

There’s an easy enough fix here. In baseball, when a hitter is winning a batting title and falls short of 502 plate appearances (anyone remember batting titles?), you simply give him 0 for 15 or whatever the appropriate number is to get him to 502. If he still has the best average, he wins the batting title that he deserves.

In Luka’s case, give him a 65th game with zero points, zero rebounds and zero assists. That qualifies him for consideration. And you know what happens to his numbers? Instead of averaging 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.6 steals, he finishes with averages of 33.0 points, 7.6 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.6 steals. Do that and then vote accordingly.

And some of the media voices that have focused on Luka’s defense need to check their history. Didn’t James Harden win this award? Didn’t Russell Westbrook win this award? Didn’t Steve Nash win it twice? Hasn’t Nikola Jokic won it three times?

Let me know their status as all-time defenders.

But with Doncic, whether it’s health or technicals or other misplaced worries, it’s always going to be something. I wouldn’t call that a win for Nico Harrison, because the deposed general manager is hardly the only one (or even the first) to call out Luka for his shortcomings. Among other things, his fouling out in Game 3 of the 2024 Finals against the Boston Celtics series in a semi-intentional fit of frustration was wildly immature for a great player in his sixth season. Now we are eight seasons in, the left leg injuries have not disappeared and so, yes, it’s possible that Luka never wins that MVP, and he never collects that championship ring.

But I wouldn’t bet that way.

Doncic just had the best month of his career, scoring 600 points in March (Michael Jordan the only other player ever to achieve that obscure honor) and leading Los Angeles to a 15-2 record. That’s how the Lakers climbed into the No. 3 seed, a slot they are trying to cling to in the final two weeks while operating without either Doncic or Austin Reaves, who also went down in the disastrous loss to the Thunder.

So if the bottom line is that the team with Luka is always going to have some hurdles to clear regarding his conditioning or availability, it’s also true that the team will win.

And they will almost always win a lot. I don’t know if he’s likely to be a Laker in five years or depositing massive paychecks elsewhere, but it’s going to be with a team that’s competing. And even with Cooper Flagg throwing down 51 Friday night, the Mavericks have miles to go (and another lottery hill to climb) before they can make their case for much of anything on that front.

____