Lakers Coach JJ Redick Reacts to Unwanted Luka Doncic News

Luka Doncic is still out of action for coach JJ Redick and the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2 against the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night. The six-time All-Star is still working his way back from a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, and there is no guarantee that he will be able to return for the NBA playoffs.

Doncic suffered his injury on April 2. At that point, the Lakers had just five games remaining in the regular season and had already secured their spot in the playoffs. The injury came at an unfortunate time and cast a dark cloud over an otherwise remarkable campaign for Doncic.

Doncic was nothing short of incredible in his first full season with the Lakers. He led the entire NBA in scoring with 33.5 points per game on 47.6% shooting. The five-time All-NBA guard also averaged 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.6 steals. He also knocked down 4.0 triples per game on a 36.8% clip.

Doncic, however, received some unwanted news on Monday. Unfortunately, the 26-year-old was not named a finalist for this season's Most Valuable Player award. The NBA announced that Victor Wembanyama, Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are the Top 3 candidates for the coveted MVP title.

Redick addressed the news ahead of Tuesday's game. The Lakers coach shared his brutally honest reaction to the NBA snubbing Doncic as an MVP finalist.

"Disappointed," Redick said. "I think he deserved to be there and I think all three guys that did end up being finalists had strong cases. A lot of this, unfortunately, is media momentum.

"Sometimes a team, I guess we underperformed even though we didn't have any expectations coming into the year. But I guess we underperformed for a couple months despite him getting Player of the Month one of those months. The media momentum just never got built."

The Lakers are reportedly not expecting Doncic to return in the first round. There is still hope, though, that he will be able to come back if L.A. advances to the next round.

The Lakers enter Tuesday's game up 1-0. Another win will put them in a strong position to take down the Rockets in the series as this first-round matchup shifts to Houston for Games 3 and 4.

Related: Lakers Coach JJ Redick Addresses Luka Doncic Development Before Game 2

Copyright 2026 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 10:03 PM.