Luka Dončić‘s Technical Foul Suspension May Cost Him His Awards Season

Luka Dončić hurt his hamstring on Thursday night. | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Luka Dončić and the Lakers had a nightmare game against the defending champs on Thursday night. The Thunder beat Los Angeles by 43 and Luka Dončić, coming off one of the most impressive months in NBA history, suffered a hamstring injury that might cost him the rest of his regular season and in turn, his eligibility for any awards.

There is plenty of reason for the Lakers to be concerned. They had no answers for the best team in the conference as they already trailed by 32 in the third quarter when Dončić went down. Dončić was 3-for-10 at the time and left the game with 12 points, his lowest point total since he scored 10 against the 76ers in February and left that game with a hamstring as well.

If Dončić misses the end of the regular season he'll finish with 64 games played, which is just one short of the number he needs to be eligible for the end of season awards. He was a shoo-in for an All-NBA team. Almost certainly first team. And he was going to be on most MVP ballots in a season with four of the strongest cases you'll ever see for the award.

Interestingly enough the NBA foresaw something like this happening and made an exception saying that a player would still be eligible if he played at least 62 games and 85% of his team's games before suffering a season-ending injury.

There's some ambiguity about whether Luka would even be eligible for that exception if he returns for the playoffs, but it doesn't really matter because as of right now he's only played 83.1% of the Lakers games. So his only chance to get back on the ballots is to suit up and gut out 20 minutes one more time in the Lakers’ final five games.

Since that seems unlikely, the conversation will shift to whether or not the NBA awards eligibility—which the players association agreed to—is fair. When it became clear that Cade Cunningham was going to fall short of the 65-game mark because of a collapsed lung, his agent put out a statement imploring the NBA to do the right thing saying, "The league should be rewarding excellence, not enforcing rigid cutoffs that ignore context. An exception needs to be made."

In Luka's case, he only has himself to blame. He's dealt with injuries this season and played when healthy with one very recent exception—Dončić was suspended by the league and missed the Lakers game against the Wizards on Monday.

He had to sit out because he had been given his 16th technical foul of the season in the previous game.

He had actually received his 16th technical the week before, but had it rescinded. Given a second chance he gave Ziaire Williams a little shove that led to a double-technical during a Lakers win over the Nets.

So here it is. From six nights before the hamstring injury ended his regular season. This is the NBA's leading scorer throwing away his awards season:

pic.twitter.com/EqF9UISJjc

— @MindOfBron (@FunKneeBone) March 28, 2026

Talk about a slap in the face.

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