Brian Windhorst on Luka: “He is not close. There is a whole ramp up that’s required when you are coming back from a hamstring. He has not started that contact ramp up yet”
This Thunder vs Lakers series could be over next Monday
Luka out cold
Reeves coming back slow
LeBron too old
Lakers in 5
years
LeBron still gonna be the first option in 2031 after Luka gets hurt again isn’t he
Yup. But at least we will have AD in a wheelchair as our center that year
atleast he’ll get boards and catch the ball
Wheelchair adds +5 def rating cuz the other team will feel bad dunking on a crippled kid
There was this one game where AD got hurt and was writhing pain right under the basket during live ball and lebron kept using the opportunity to score because the other team was too cautious of stepping on AD.
Wheelchair means players like Lu Dortz can’t trip him anymore.
Lol please let this happen
Somebody bring Bron from 2018 and this may be a sweep
Might be over already
Unless the thunder are frauds lakers are getting swept
And they proved just last year that they’re not frauds
By going to 7 against a weak Pacers?
even if Luka came back, he would’ve been rusty as fuck, this series was over before it even started, OKC just owns us
Lakers: The series is already over. But not for me.
Good. It’s not worth rushing him back
We realistically have minimal, if any, chance of beating them. Just accept the inevitable and let him return next season when we have a significantly retooled roster.
“Houston in 5”
“SAS-Denver 2nd round will feed families”
“It’s the Celtics and everyone else in the East”
I sure as hell wouldn’t bet on us winning, but just stop being defeatist and accept the fact that anything can happen in the playoffs lol
You right. KD was healthy all season. Then playoffs hit and and he gets an injury during practice out of no where.
I’ll be waiting for that surprise SGA, Chet, and JDub injury update.
Isn’t Jdub already hurt?
THANK YOU. I feel like I’m going insane. Of course the Thunder are heavily favored, but I don’t understand how people can look at this year’s First Round and come to the conclusion that the Thunder are winning no matter what.
Injuries can come out of nowhere (KD injured at practice), a random bench player can go on a generational heater (Ayo Dosunmu 43 points), a seemingly good team can go ice cold (Celtics scoring 11 points in the 4th).
Treating the Thunder like they’re repeating champs already is crazy.
Reddit Laker fans have a bad habit of wanting to fawn and talk down on ourselves around haters instead of daring be an actual fan, I think because it’s more fun to join in than be on the defensive.
It’s the weirdest thing. Yankee fans and Cowboy fans aren’t all “golly gosh I hope we make it competitive with our fake 4 seed and collection of scrubs”
It’s because Lakers defeatist comments get upvotes lol
Thunder winning the whole thing is up for debate. Thunder winning against the lakers, not so much. (Personally I’m hoping the 6ers can pull it off. Rooting for y’all)
Cryo chamber Luka, AR, and LBJ then try again in 15 years when OKC dynasty is done, and Wemby is washed bro. You should only try when there is guaranteed chance, and upsets never happen in the NBA. Otherwise, shut down your stars
No!!!! Only the Celtics, Spurs, and Thunder should be competing!!!!!! Why try??? We know what’s going to happen!
Y’all have no chance lol
Just peep the Lakers record against OKC in regular season lmao.
Celtics destroyed the Knicks in 2025 in that proceeded to lose to them in the playoffs
No doubt OKC are massive favorites but an upset is always possible
luka being out is letting you guys have an excuse and be delusional
wish we was healthy so we could just win by 20 every game anyway
Thats true but any team with Luka has a chance, even so slightly, to overperform. Suns Mavs back then where the Suns handed the belt to Mavs in the regular season come to mind
Nah fuck that
They need to muck the game up and make this hard for OKC. I’m not saying okay. not going to win but don’t just lay down
How exactly does that benefit them more than not risking their young stars future lol
Dude they’re not going to put him out there unless he’s healthy enough
I’m saying the Lakers need to still give it 100%. Anything can happen. You guys absolutely should sweep this series so if you don’t it’s more of a knock on you Maybe Austin and Bron can pull a Bron / Kyrie, wtf knows?
Just go for it
So dumb to let Luka play when they can’t win even if Luka was at his peak condition
Bringing him back has always been nonsensical to me. This is the future of your franchise who has dealt with lower leg stuff for a while. You’re not beating the Thunder anyway.. so why risk it?
Fortune and glory kid, fortune and glory
full send and be legends
Until Lu Dort Kali Ma’s Lebron’s 41yr old heart at half court.
Luka is 27 years old and already has a pretty extensive injury history. It’s fair to say that he has like maybe five years left of peak performance?
Punting on this season because “they aren’t beating OKC anyway” is LA essentially punting on 20%-25% of prime Luka’s tenure with them in the playoffs. You don’t just punt on that because OKC is historically good.
If Luka is cleared, he should play. In five years, LA will not be able to catch up to the assets that OKC and SA have accumulated. They might as well trade Luka now, if they’re willing to forfeit playoff series because of that.
No thats not fair to say at all, Kawhi had one of his best seasons this year after years of being the face of load management and being injured. Embiid’s body hates him and he was the X-factor in upsetting the celtics. No one can predict how many years luka will have “peak performance” much less a random reddit user with no access to his medical and performance records
Luka’s game doesn’t rely on pure athleticism, he’s smart and tactical, he could be a top level contributor all the way into his late 30s like for example Harden
What does Windy know about a ramp up?
Well he sure hasn’t been taking the stairs
That dark humor is incredible lmao
How do you think he got the name Windy?
He’s the type that sneaks on the service elevator in an arena.
Lmfao, thanks for the laugh
Damn
Not sure if the guy you’re replying to intentionally threw that lob up for you or if this is just a put back dunk on a missed shot.
This is the Wade to Bron alley oop of Reddit comments
Windy fat, upvotes to the left
It’s a cheap bit but it gets over with the crowd
Post your pic
You’re gonna build Beansie Windy a ramp
I feel like a lot since he probably uses the wheelchair ramps
Fade us already fuck
Don’t worry you still have Bronny
Did you happen to see what happened to Bronny last time he was thrown out there vs Cason Wallace? It looked like one of us was allowed to lace up for a few mins and get out there
No but Lakers fans told me he clamped Giannis!
You’re fine bro. You don’t need that cone.
You’ve got Reaves back and he’ll carry the offensive load just fine.
OKC arent unbeatable. A lot of upsets have happened, or almost happened this playoffs. OKC’s shooting was really bad last playoffs and were lucky to win 3 game 7s. Jdub hasnt been playing great. If Kennard, Smart, Rui all shoot just their season averages, that might be enough to win. Ayton CAN play well occassionally he’s just inconsistent.
Look I’m confident af unlike you negative nancies, if the lakers don’t eliminate OKC in the second round you can ban me from the thunder subreddit
I’m always so used to hearing about players from different sports beating the timetables for injuries and returning much quickly that it feels bizarre to hear of a player doing the complete opposite
Hamstrings are just not something you can rush, it’s probably the worst lingering injury, and is super easy to re-aggravate if it’s not healed.
It’s not even a matter of if it will re-aggravate more of a when if you rush it, and it will take twice as long to heal..go look at Harden after the hamstring injury in Brooklyn, took almost a full year to heal
Aaron Gordon is still getting destroyed by his ham string issues. Iirc those started LAST year.
If he re-aggravated it, would he potentially miss time at the start of next year? How meaningful is it to miss a month or two of whatever they’re up to in the off-season? The calculus feels different than if it were December or something but idk what is actually involved here
(I’m a complete novice getting into the NBA for the first time)
James Harden was hampered by a hamstring injury for around a year. It’s possible that Luka suffers the same fate if he reaggrevates it, or it’s worse by being affected by it for longer or being permanently worsened by it.
If the lakers weren’t playing the thunder, maybe it’s worth pushing a return, but it just doesn’t make sense against OKC to rush Luka back if he isn’t ready
Considering he did a grade 2 hamstring strain, if he came back and re-aggravated it, its likely he would get a grade 3 strain and that means a complete rupture/tear of his hamstring where it separates from the bone.
This is not something you want Luka to experience because it involves getting surgery and the recovery is anywhere from 4 to 7 months. He could literally miss the entire off-season or even the 1st/2nd month of the 26-27 season if it’s really bad.
Luka is infamous for not being diligent with his conditioning/physique so if a guy like him had a setback with his hamstring, yes, it’d probably bleed over into next season as well.
Bro what 😭😭. People be talking out of their ass.
About Luka’s conditioning? This guys ass is 100% correct about Luka having issues with his offseason conditioning. Every single year the story is what kind of shape will Luka be in. Even though it was a stupid reason, his conditioning was the reason Dallas traded him. This guys ass is telling the truth.
He came in good condition into this season though.
Bro is still salty from that 2024 belt even though they won the whole thing in 2025
Harden arguably didn’t really look fully healthy until THIS year.
One thing that always boggles my mind about the handling of hammy issues is how different it feels with the NFL. I swear if it’s not severe they force guys on the field, I remember Julio would constantly be on the injury report with a banged up hammy and still go kill corners.
Meanwhile every other sport guys actually seem to get the appropriate time to heal up.
NFL cares much less about the health of their individual players + season is shorter so harder to skip games + there is less mileage on those legs throughout the game since it is not 30-40 minutes of constant movement and jumping at high intensity.
Maybe they don’t want to rush because of his long term future? Idk.
I think if they steal one of the first 2 (or especially if you go up 2-1), you might think about trying. But if it’s just 2 booty blastings in game 1⁄2, Luka ain’t fixing that, and give him his rest.
Never thought I’d be hoping for a booty blasting but here I am.
As a Thunder fan, this is business as usual as far as I’m concerned. I can’t recall the last guy on the roster who came back from injury faster than expected.
SGA took the long end of his expected timetable, Ajay was out longer than expected, JDub too. I just assume that 4-6 weeks means 2 months atp
When is Dub coming back btw? Will he play this series?
I assumw they wont play him until game 3 to be safe
I would think and hope that we just save him for the conference finals as long as this series goes like we expect it to. If we win both home games just let him rest. I’d hate to rush him back into a series we should be able to win without him.
If he was 100% I love having him guard LeBron but if he’s 75-80% LeBron is the last person I would want him on.
The problem with that is they don’t want him going from sitting out to 100%. They’ll also need to ramp him up into game speed to prevent another injury. I think he’ll get minutes here and there toward the end of the series with the Lakers just to ease him back in. That’s if he’s healthy enough to even start that process yet.
Unless we magically extend to 6 there’s no way he’s coming back this series. They don’t need to rush him back when they’re much better than us even without him
The Thunder are notoriously tight lipped when it comes to time tables of when a player is going to return. When they said 1-3 weeks, to me, that meant 3 weeks minimum. That puts him in game 3 or 4 territory.
I highly doubt he plays this series at all tbh. He’s had 3 hamstring injuries this year already, I’m sure they wont risk re-aggravating it when he isn’t needed to beat the Lakers (no offense)
It makes sense for the Thunder to play any injury conservatively especially in the regular season. They have enough depth to still keep winning even when getting hit by injuries.
Hamstring… I don’t know if you can rush that.
Luka’s got a grade 2 hamstring strain, which is a 3-6 week injury. He got injured about 4 weeks ago (April 2nd), so him not being that close isn’t that crazy, he’s just closer to the longer range. Plus it’s not really worth it to rush/ playthrough hamstring injuries, especially with his stop-start style of play.
That’s because Hammy injuries are fucked.
Players do their hammy all the time in Australian Rules Football/AFL (our main sport) because of the how the game is played and they’ll usually be on the sideline anywhere from 4 to 10 weeks depending on the severity (strain or tear). Pretty common to see players re-injure the hammy as well because they came back to quick or just because the game is so physical and fast paced and they’ll then have to spend more time on the sideline.
It sucks to say it as a Lakers fan but Luka is honestly better off missing the entire post-season because repeat hamstring strains will completely fuck up the body. If he comes back and re-injures his hammy its only going to derail his post-season recovery and training.
Luka in general seems to have bad conditioning
EDIT: a lot of you are confusing current physical fitness with long term conditioning, the latter of which is way more important in building a foundation for your body to resist and recover from injury, Luka has not dedicated the past few years to conditioning and instead ate like shit and didn’t take the time to recover from previous injuries. This makes him more susceptible to injury in the long run, as much as I’m hoping for a quick recovery.
based on?
ahh yes, one of the highest usage star players since his rookie year just doesn’t have good conditioning, he literally transformed his body this year, hamstrings are just a injury you can’t avoid in NBA anymore with the pace and style of the game
Why did he transform his body if he was already a well conditioned athlete since his rookie year ? 🧐
He’s 27, of course he’s able to play a whole game and have high usage. We have been told that he’s finally taking his health and conditioning serious multiple times since his rookie year lol.
Aaron Gordon is ripped as fuck and he couldn’t play because of hamstring injury either.
Hammy don’t care about your physiques
He has had good conditioning this year. Played 36 minutes a game with super high usage. Hamstring injuries are just tough
Dude that’s not what conditioning means, having good conditioning takes years to strengthen your body, he hasn’t taken any time to really rest and recover from previous injuries and apparently ate like shit for years. Just because he got healthier for a year doesn’t mean he had the physical foundation to avoid injury like other players who prioritized their bodies for years.
lol I guess some people think that because he had 36mpg and high usage that all the issues and problems with his conditioning are overblown. Conditioning is what’s allowed LeBron to play at the level he’s on at age 41. Luka is 27, I doubt even his most delusional fans think he will be playing like that at 41, let alone still in the league.
bro needs to hit up his boy Djokovic for the flexibility training
As long as he comes back by the NBA finals, as the Lakers won’t really need him before that. /s
Good. We weren’t beating OKC even fully healthy. No reason to risk our long term future against this OKC team this year.
Take our ass whooping and move on to a hopefully very fruitful offseason.
If this team can somehow take a game or two, I’ll be celebrating like Pat Bev being playin champions.
They ran him to the freaking GROUND during the regular season. We shouldn’t need him to score 40 to win against teams like the Bulls and Grizzlies during the season.
He just turned fucking 27 man. He should be healthy and well conditioned enough to handle that, especially with how he easily he takes it on defense. He’s not being asked to do more than other stars around the league.
Not saying he should be rushed back, but we need to get real and stop babying this dude
It’s just how Luka fans are. The team has been winning without him but ig it’s too much to ask of him to produce like a superstar to win? Idk lol
Being well conditioned does not magically make someone immune to injuries though. There are athletes that are in fantastic shape, but are simply injury prone. Just the luck of the draw sometimes.
I agree, if he wants to have a long healthy career he either needs to get his conditioning right or cut his offensive usage down.
No other star is being asked to carry a 41 yr old like a backpack all season.
That 41 year old solo’d your bum ass franchise sit down
I saw Austin Reaves out there when times were getting tough for him against a team that didn’t have its primary floor general, primary center, and primary scorer. Took LA to 6 games with Reed Shepherd as our point guard.
But sure man, he “solo’d”.
Luka still got hurt by carrying Bron like a backpack all season.
All those dudes you were missing are primary trash so who gives a fuck. Start the re-rebuild.
That’s Luka’s preferred playstyle. He’s done it his entire NBA career.
Yeah, that was definitely Luka’s preferred playstyle and had nothing to do with Mavs (and Lakers post-AD) being trash because KP was mostly injured, Brunson was let go for nothing when he started to blossom into a star and he had 1 single full season with Kyrie in which Mavs went to Finals.
Oh, and for Lakers both LBJ and AR missed 20+ games this season.
Luka’s usage rate was insanely high even with LeBron and AR in the lineup. Luka wants to have the ball in his hands a lot, no matter the offensive supporting cast around him.
Luka’s usage rate per game in March with a healthy LeBron and Reaves: March 31st: 40.4% March 27th: 39.1 March 25: 42.8% March 23rd: 41.6% March 21st: 42.7% March 19th: 45.3% March 18th: 45.2%
I would keep going, but I think you get the point. He has the best second/third offensive option combo in the league and is still putting up Prime Russ usage rates. It’s ridiculous.
Very true but not sure if that level of game by game usage is feasible for him to have long healthy career. Also considering the fact he isn’t the most athletic in the first place.
He averaged around the same MPG he’s always played lol
….didn’t he not even play 65 games? Missing 30% of the season is being ran into the ground?
It was nice getting past the Rockets, but realistically we’re likely getting swept by the Thunder even with a healthy Luka. There’s no reason to rush back and risk injury.
bro lakers fans in this thread are sad you would think we already lost with the way ya’ll are talking.😭
Look at ANY comment with a hint of optimism, even the ones that already say that they know it’s a fat chance, and there’s 10 comments saying “they got no chance!!” Or “check the regular season record brah!” As if they said the Lakers were gonna sweep OKC or something
Big mind games 😤
Lakers just playing 4D chess /s
Shame. The last time OKC got beaten in play-off is by a one legged Luka Mavs.
…..But mainly PJ (MJ) Washington.
PJ averaged 17 PPG, mainly from Luka getting him open shots.
This dude sounds good. He should lead Mavs to another ring
got me fucked up
I know its not of the same significance but JDub also has his hamstring issue looming over OKC
Only way lakers have any chance is if SGA gets hurt and how this playoffs is going with injuries I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens
u/dry-razzmatazz1239 hmmmmm
Mind you Windy also predicted the Rockets would sweep the Hospital Lakers. I know it’s OKC this round but still this bum don’t know shit. 😭
Surely he knew KD would randomly get hurt in practice after being healthy all year.
Its ok Luka. Nuke Kennard is here
Bronny going for 84 tomorrow
Just fucking weird this. Either Windy is talking out of his ass or the injury was worse than they thought and if it is are they ramping him up for holidays?
No sensible Lakers fan is going into this series thinking the Lakers have much of a chance. Beating the Rockets without Luka (and AR out for the majority) is already pretty flipping great. It’s like a 90-10 favored OKC, maybe 80-20 if you really believe in LeBron turning back the clock.
It’s probably their worst possible matchup, even if he was totally healthy. Everything about OKC is a hard counter to their roster.
Qqq
What’s the difference between day to day Davis vs day to day Doncic
The Lakers probably weren’t going to win G1 on the road anyway. If he’s not back by G3 at home, I’d say their season is over. OKC is historically good this year, only chance that the Lakers win is if OKC beats themselves.
Brooms out ?
As a fan of a team who had a historic season torn asunder by LeBron, i would greatly enjoy it if he could do that again but to a different team now that I’m just a neutral spectator.
I know the Lakers were supposed to get swept before and look where we are now, but this is not the same at all
So was Nico Harrison right?
Pray for the Lakers
Even before that disastrous OKC game, the ceiling for this team was maaaaybe eking out a slugfest against San Antonio when we were the three seed. So making it to the second round is enough of an accomplishment for this team. Just make it competitive, boys.
OKC about to waltz to the WCF healthy and rested.
That’s fine dude this season was supposed to be a mulligan anyway
Reaves is going to be in hell this series
You’re gonna build Luka a ramp Windy!
I’ve said this before, Luka is done for the season lol. It’s a serious injury
Lakers should be bigger underdogs vs thunder than 2018 Cavs were vs the KD warriors
What if the Lakers win though? That’s got to be the most frustrating thing, your team wins the Championship without you.
Just a reminder that Aaron Gordon played on a grade 2 hamstring strain last postseason against OKC about 48 hours after sustaining that injury.
He did not play a lot this season.
just be happy you made the second round.
LeBron is about to put on a show. He won’t be able to win the series without Luka but he’s going to make it competitive.
He’s out for the season. His first game back from a torn hamstring will not be in the middle of a deep playoff run
The Thunder are a better team than us overall. But they are missing their second best player and people are acting like that won’t make a difference
ugh what a robbery to not have luka in the playoffs for what feels like forever
Lmao I fucking called it “notoriously fat and lazy” Luka wasn’t coming back this year
I dont think he makes it back to be honest. Hamstrings are pretty tricky it seems like, Everyone was giving Zion shit for it but he came back after dealing with his hamstring quickly and it got injured again pretty much right after during that Lakers play in game if I remember correctly.
Damn this must’ve been a pretty bad grade 2 then because most come back in that 4-6 week range and it’ll be over 5 by the time game 3 comes around so it’s not like it’s a quick comeback.
Was hoping we’d see him full go but it makes sense not to push it if he’s not there.
With Jdubs hammy continuing to act up this could have been an interesting series with Luka ready but oh well.
I was really wondering if there was a chance he might come back, he and Dub need to heal up
fml
game 1 is going to be the feeler game. if the lakers cant cut it, they might as well shelve luka for the rest of the season
Windhorst is comically obese for a basketball reporter
That’s what happens when you carry around a 41 yr old backpack all season.
That same 41 year old that sent the so called “better team” to Cancun?
we heard you the first time brodie
Good.
I dont think it’s an exaggeration to say they have a better shot of stealing a game or 2 without him playing
Just like spurs without wemby!!
Wemby doesn’t have a huge usage rate so offense isn’t fully reliant on him, can play offball and contribute massively defensively. Two different types of players.
My comment wasn’t made to be serious. I’m just showing him how stupid his comment was.