The Los Angeles Lakers will be without Luka Doncic for a while. He hurt his hamstring and has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 strain. It’s the worst possible time for Doncic to get hurt. With just a handful of games left in the regular season, it was horrible for him to go down.
Austin Reaves is hurt now, too, so Los Angeles is in big trouble heading into the playoffs. Neither starting guard is expected to be back for the first round of the playoffs. ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith initially hypothesized that Doncic was possibly faking his injury.
Now that Doncic is out for an extended period of time, fans are calling Smith out for his ludicrous take, even though he’s trying to claim he never said this.
Lakers Fans Come After Stephen A. Smith
LA fans are pulling receipts from Smith on First Take to show that he did indeed insinuate that Donic was faking his injury. This came after Smith tried to claim he did no such thing.
Smith got called out by a fan, pulling out the clip that showed Smith doing just that. On that episode of First Take, Smith insinuated that Doncic wanted out of the Thunder game because they were getting drilled.
“When we saw him holding his hamstring in the first half, a lot of us were like, ‘Wait a minute now. That wasn’t happening when you were dropping 30+ in the last 12, 13, 15 games, but now suddenly, your damn hamstring is hurt.’ We were looking at it with a raised eyebrow because an ass-kicking will do that to you. It will make you humble. It will make you run for cover. It will make you want to run to the locker room. It will make you pretend you got to use the bathroom. It will make you pretend that something might be a family emergency just to get away from those confines.”
Los Angeles Fans Have a Reason to be Upset with Stephen A. Smith
This is a pretty irresponsible thing to insinuate that a player would do. He, along with some other pundits, also did the same thing to Tyrese Haliburton and his calf injury during the NBA Finals last season. Now, he’s getting properly called out.
Doncic is traveling to Europe to try to speed up his recovery process. He is trying everything he can to return to the team for the playoffs. Right now, he is slated to miss the first round of the playoffs, as is Austin Reaves. The Lakers need at least one of them to return.
If the Lakers can’t have either player available, there is a good chance they won’t advance in the postseason. LeBron James is going to carry a massive load. James might not be able to carry them to a first-round victory without either starting guard on the roster.
Smith is starting to develop a history of saying things like this. Lakers fans are not going to put up with it, as they are one of the most protective fanbases of their superstars of any fanbase in the league.
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