Category: Sports News

Maybe the Minnesota Timberwolves are playing mind games with Victor Wembanyama. Or maybe they're right that the record number of blocks the San Antonio Spurs superstar was credited with during Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals weren't quite what they seemed. Maybe this is simply how the first real playoff obstacle of Wembanyama's career will manifest itself.

It's nonetheless become one of the talking points during the 2026 NBA playoffs, with Game 2 between the Timberwolves and Spurs set for Wednesday, May 6. Wembanyama is coming off a historic triple-double performance in which he set the NBA playoff record with 12 blocks (to go along with 11 points and 15 rebounds) in a losing effort.

But Wembanyama left disappointed by his offensive output and then Minnesota's coach and players added some salt to the wound by clapping back at the legitimacy of some of Wembanyama's blocks. Coach Chris Finch argued in the aftermath of Game 1 that at least four of Wembanyama's swats should have been called goaltending. Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, who is considered Wembanyama's mentor, agreed.

"To me, it's a little alarming they weren't called," Finch told reporters ahead of Game 2.

OKLAHOMA CITY — The last time the Lakers were in Oklahoma City, Luka Doncic’s regular season ended because of a Grade 2 left hamstring strain he suffered in the April 2 loss to the Thunder. 

More than a month later, Doncic reaffirmed his desire to return during the playoffs.  

Doncic told reporters the update on Wednesday during a media availability in between Tuesday’s Game 1 loss to the Thunder and Thursday’s Game 2 of the best-of-seven second-round playoff series. 

“Obviously, this is a different injury than I ever had,” said Doncic, who was sidelined for four games in February because of a mild left hamstring injury. “It’s been [the] second time I [injured the hamstring this season]. So recovery has been a little longer. But I’m feeling good. Working every day, so I’m trying to come back.” 

Originally, the injury was expected to have a recovery timeline of four to six weeks, but Doncic said he was told eight weeks.

Thursday marks five weeks since the injury happened. Eight weeks from Doncic’s injury is May 28 — which is 10 days after a potential Game 7 of a Lakers-Thunder series.

Doncic started running on the injured hamstring, the next step in his return-to-play protocol.

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

Right after the injury happened, Doncic traveled to Spain for advanced treatment aimed at accelerating recovery. He received four PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injections.

“Everybody knows that Spain, they’re just one of the best countries to do that,” Doncic said. “And obviously, I talked with the Lakers’ doctors, so everybody agreed for me to go there. Obviously, I know and trust lots of people from Spain that I used to work before. But why I was in Spain so long is because I needed four days in between every shot. So I did it four times. So that’s why I stayed longer.”

Luka Doncic: "I went to Spain to do PRP. Everybody knows that Spain, they're just one of the best countries to do that…I know and trust lots of people from Spain. Why I was in Spain so long is because I needed four days in between every shot. So I did it four times. So that's… pic.twitter.com/16xtKAuMhp

— Khobi Price (@khobi_price) May 6, 2026

When asked about the PRP injections potentially expediting his recovery, Doncic responded: “I’m just in the process, I’m working every day. I feel better every day. Like I said, in the beginning they say eight weeks. So we just go from there.”

Game 3 and Game 4 of the Lakers-Thunder series are scheduled Saturday and Monday at Crypto.com Arena.

Doncic didn’t have a concrete answer when asked if he’d try to ramp things up when the series shifts to Los Angeles.

“I’m just doing everything I can,” he said. “Every day I’m doing stuff I’m supposed to do. Obviously recovery, now I’m working. But like I said, doctor said eight weeks at the beginning of the first MRI. Just going day by day, and I feel better every day.”

Luka Doncic's response when asked whether he'll try to ramp up his return-to-play process for when Lakers-Thunder shifts back to L.A.: "I'm just doing everything I can, like I said, every day I'm doing stuff I'm supposed to do. The doctors said 8 weeks at the beginning of the 1st… pic.twitter.com/ab2kaCQavE

— Khobi Price (@khobi_price) May 6, 2026

Doncic had an incredible season before suffering the hamstring strain April 2. He became the second player in NBA history to score 600-plus points in March, alongside Michael Jordan. Over that period, he led the Lakers on a 16-2 run.

“We had an amazing month of March,” Doncic said. “The injury came in the worst moment probably for me. But I think other guys just stepped up really good. But it was very frustrating for me.” 

Yet he wasn’t even an MVP finalist this season despite leading the league in scoring (33.5 points), finishing third in assists (8.3) and sixth in steals (1.6).

It’s a tough break for Doncic, who came into training camp in arguably the best shape of his career. Motivated by the shocking trade that sent him to Hollywood from Dallas, he carried the Lakers to fourth place in the West after playing in 64 games and averaging 35.8 minutes per game.

Without Doncic, the Lakers shocked the Rockets in six games to advance to the Western Conference semifinals against the defending champions.

“Everybody had us out; everybody had us [losing in] five, six games, and we proved it,” Doncic said. “We can play. The way everybody stepped up is truly amazing to see. So hopefully they continue that.”

Despite limiting reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to 18 points and getting an incredible game from LeBron James, the Lakers suffered a 108-90 loss in Game 1.

“When you play against the world champions and [miss] having a guy that averages 34 [points] and eight [rebounds] and nine [assists] and is that special, that’s [tough],” James said regarding the Lakers missing Doncic.

With Doncic on his way back, the Lakers could return to full strength with James and Austin Reaves and have a legitimate chance at pulling off one of the biggest postseason upsets of the decade.

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“Obviously, we always want to have Luka out there,” Reaves said Sunday. “He’s one of the best players in the league, if not the best player. It’s definitely a different task. Everyone has to play differently to create and fill the void of the things he does for us.”

Luka Doncic: "This is a different injury than I've ever had…the recovery's been a little bit longer. Working every day, trying to come back."

Mentioned that he hasn't started doing contact work yet. https://t.co/PMFA5n20Qwpic.twitter.com/cbfcVpVLXE

— Khobi Price (@khobi_price) May 6, 2026

Against a team as good as the Thunder, there is no margin for error. LeBron James discussed the attention to detail required for LA to have success against OKC before the series even began.

So, when LA played Game 1 and had 18 turnovers, that didn’t exactly put them in a position for success. The result went as expected: the Thunder beat the Lakers fairly easily.

After the loss, Lakers head coach JJ Redick mentioned how the process was good, but the execution was lacking.

“When we made gameplan mistakes, they hurt us,” Redick said. “I thought the Houston Game 5 was the most gameplan mistakes we made in a playoff game so far. We, obviously, lost that game. You’re playing the world champs. Your margin for error is not very high. You can make mistakes. Basketball is a game full of mistakes. There were just too many tonight. We got to clean that up.”

Despite the final score, the Lakers stayed within reach of the Thunder early on. It was an eight-point game at halftime, and midway through the third quarter they cut the lead to four. However, OKC requires 48 minutes of concentration. LA missed their next three shot attempts, Jaxson Hayes had a turnover and the Thunder went on a 6-0 run, bringing the lead back up to double figures.

“I just think we had some gameplan breakdowns,” LeBron said. “What we’ve been preparing, we had some breakdowns. They’re going to test you, obviously. They’re going to see how many times they can make you have gameplan breakdowns. We had a few, almost too many versus a team like this. We know what they’re capable of doing. They can go on a run where it’s like ‘We got them right here, it’s a two-possession game, three-possession game’ and then boom, it’s a double-digit lead. That’s what some of the great teams do. Can’t have compound mistakes.”

Minus LeBron, every other Laker has room for improvement. Jake LaRavia was struggling and gave the team nothing offensively. Austin Reaves had one of his worst games ever. He shot 3-16 from the field and had a team-high four turnovers.

Reaves is supposed to be the franchise guard, and that performance wasn’t even close to good enough.

“Just made a couple mental mistakes…If you watched [OKC] throughout the year, every time you make a couple mistakes in a row, they capitalize on those,” Reaves said.”

The good news is that this series is still very early. OKC did their job and won their home game. The Lakers want to steal one and that’s still on the table with Game 2 set for Thursday. For them to accomplish this, they’ll have to be better in every statistical category, and the last thing they need is self-inflicted errors.

“Those little mistakes are going to hurt,” Hachimura said. “We talked about it after the game. Those little stuff, they hurt us. This is the first game. Of course, we have more games but I think we have to communicate better on those mistakes. Especially after coming out of timeouts, those are going to be important positions for us so we have to lock in.”

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.