After an injury scare on Saturday, it appears Luka Dončić and the Lakers dodged a bullet.
During Slovenia’s warm-up game against Latvia, Luka exited the game early in the second half after having a teammate fall into his legs. Initially, the injury looked to be serious as Luka hopped off the court without putting weight on his leg. Eventually, he limped off the court and eased some worries by walking around without a limp or ice on his knee after the final buzzer.
Following the game, both longtime NBA reporter Marc Stein and Dan Woike of The Athletic reported that Luka had avoided any serious injury and would remain with the team.
Slovenia will return to the court on Tuesday when they play against Great Britain. Then, they will wrap up their exhibition games on Thursday against Serbia.
Luka’s availability in either of those games will be a sign of just how healthy he is. Ironically, Saturday was the first game for Luka during these warm-up contests that he did not have a minutes restriction.
This is a bit of guessing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that minutes restriction returns just to limit the amount of time Luka is on the court and making sure he’s available for EuroBasket, which will start on Aug. 28.
The good news, though, is that there is still a EuroBasket to project for Luka as he appears to have avoided injury.