The Oklahoma City Thunder is not getting any credit for handing the Los Angeles Lakers a blowout. The spotlight has solely been on Luka Doncic. On the way to that 139-96 horror, LakeShow’s worst nightmare came true. Doncic had to leave the floor after he suffered a non-contact injury. His injury, though, wasn’t responsible for the 43-point deficit. The team’s fate was sealed in the first half when Doncic showed signs of injury. That left everyone asking one simple question: Why was he still in the game? That’s diverted the outrage from him to JJ Redick.

Doncic had been powering through games with a sore hamstring for a while now. Tonight, it seemed to get aggravated, and he couldn’t return to the floor. Not that it would make a difference when they were almost 50 points behind. After the blowout, Redick had a somewhat dull reaction to his star guard’s injury. “We checked him out, he got work done,” the Lakers coach said. “He was cleared. I mean, again, we’re not going to put a player at risk. Those things happen.”

Doncic is scheduled for an MRI on Friday, which will determine the extent of the injury. After the fact, Redick stated their player protection policy was, “Going for another day.” However, signs indicate that he put Doncic at risk of a shutdown in a losing game. Redick and his staff opted to keep the 27-year-old on the floor despite a massive deficit. NBA on Prime’s broadcast captured Doncic receiving extensive medical work on his hamstring during the halftime break, yet he returned to the court for the second half with the Lakers trailing.

When pressed on why a compromised star was playing in a blowout with the postseason just two weeks away, Redick admitted the staff had considered pulling the starters, but then changed their minds. “Yeah, I mean, it was discussed at halftime, thought we’d give those guys about six minutes, and then we were going to, if we didn’t cut into the lead, we were going to pull them. And obviously it was around that time that, I don’t remember the exact time, but that happened,” Redick added. The Lakers never really managed to catch up to OKC throughout this game. So naturally, fans can’t reconcile with the decision.

JJ Redick’s experiment to run with an injured Luka Doncic fails badly, and fans aren’t mincing their words

The most ironic thing in this game was the hate train against Luka Doncic in the first half. Observers, including Stan Van Gundy, noted he was stopping too often instead of switching to defense in transition. In hindsight, the more fans analyze the game, the more they notice signs that Doncic was not fit to play. Lakers Nation is pointing to the obvious signs of distress Doncic displayed early in the contest. One frustrated observer noted the lack of foresight from the medical staff, stating, “Luka’s hamstring was bothering him earlier in the game and JJ Redick put him back out there down 30 in the 2nd half 😭”

The sentiment that pride was prioritized over health resonated across the fanbase. “If Luka misses the playoffs because of this game nobody will forget it. Some losses you just have to take. Your franchise player’s health is more important than pride,” an observer wrote. Things were quite tense when Doncic went down. The Thunder fans, though, continued not caring and taunted the Slovenian about his defense. That prompted a quick response from Austin Reaves, who asked everybody to show some respect.

Redick’s post-game remarks add a layer of irony to the criticism directed at the coaching staff’s fundamental responsibility to protect their assets, regardless of the score. “Coaching staff gotta be held accountable for that. Protecting your franchise player’s long term health should always come before a game that’s already decided. No stat line is worth a season ending injury,” argued one fan.

The visual evidence from the broadcast served as the smoking gun for many.”Prime broadcast just showed a shot of Luka Doncic getting work done on his hamstring during halftime. If he was compromised, and the Lakers medical staff or JJ Redick cleared him to keep playing in a 30-pt blowout with injury risk, that’s a dereliction of duty,” a fan wrote.

Redick and his staff’s miscalculation of a six-minute opportunity may cost them their star scorer. Even NBA insider Rachel A. DeMita labeled the decision as a failure of leadership and “straight negligence.”

Some coped with dark humor like, “jj said hamstrings heal faster in blowouts.” But the blow to the Lakers is more than just the final score. As the Lakers await official imaging results, Redick faces a critical moment where the greed for “competitive spirit” may have cost them their championship aspirations.