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Luka Doncic #77 of the Los Angeles Lakers celebrates the 98-78 win against the Houston Rockets in Game Six of the First Round of the NBA Western Conference Playoffs at Toyota Center on May 01, 2026 in Houston, Texas.

Popular influencer MrBeast has echoed the sentiments of Los Angeles Lakers fans upset with the news of Luka Doncic’s persistent injury.

Ahead of Game 3 between the Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder, MrBeast sent out a sad-faced crying emoji while reacting to news that Doncic will sit out.

Doncic will miss his 14th consecutive game, which includes the final five games of the regular season, six games of the first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets and the first two games of the Western Conference semifinals against the Thunder.

The Slovenian was initially expected to miss four to six weeks after being diagnosed with a grade 2 hamstring strain on April 2. However, he seemingly suffered a setback in his recovery, as he only recently started running nearly six weeks into his rehab.

Luka Doncic Injury Update

Amid widespread speculation on his injury, Doncic broke his silence earlier this week, admitting that it’s been “frustrating” to watch his teammates from the sidelines.

“It’s very frustrating,” he said of his time away from basketball.

“I don’t think people understand how frustrating it is,” he added. All I wanna do is play basketball, especially at this time. It’s the best time to play basketball. It’s very frustrating. But to see what my team is doing, I’m very proud of them. But it’s been very tough just to see it and watch them play.”

Doncic was so committed to leading the Lakers in the playoffs that he received PRP treatments in Europe, hoping to expedite his recovery timeline.

“I went to Spain to do PRP. I needed four days in between every shot. So I did it four times,” he said this week. “The day I did the MRI on the hamstring, the doctor told me eight weeks at the beginning [on April 2].”

Lakers in Danger of Going Down 3-0

Sports medicine expert Dr. Jesse Morse recently suggested that Doncic’s trip to Spain proved to be an unmitigated disaster, as it didn’t help expedite his recovery.

“This is a failure of epic proportions when the team needs him the most,” Morse said. “They went to a car dealership with all the money in the world and they said, ‘Hey, let’s buy a Toyota Corolla. There’s a Ferrari sitting right next to it.’”

The Lakers enter Saturday’s Game 3 as 8.5-point underdogs even as the series shifts to the Crypto.com Arena after the first two games in Oklahoma City. The defending champions Thunder have yet to lose a game in the playoffs, after drubbing the Phoenix Suns 4-0 in the first round and jumping out a 2-0 lead versus the Lakers.

In fairness to the Lakers, they’ve been competitive in at least seven of the eight quarters of the first two games against the Thunder, despite the Luka Doncic injury. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin expects them to remain competitive at home on Saturday.

“With Austin Reaves coming off a career-playoff high 31 points Thursday and LeBron James (23 points on 9-of-18 shooting) and Rui Hachimura (16 points on 6-of-10) staying in rhythm, L.A. will have to prove it can put together four full quarters at Crypto.com Arena if it wants any chance of making this a series.”

Lakers vs. Thunder Game 3 tips off at 8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.