LeBron James, sidelined for the past week with a groin strain suffered last weekend against the Boston Celtics, will be out for at least another week, according to ESPN. The injury began in the middle of an attempted fourth-quarter comeback for the Los Angeles Lakers against Boston, and nothing has gone right for them ever since.
The Lakers went on to lose that game to Boston with James missing the ending. After that, they dropped their next three games against the Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets. Things don’t get easier from here. Including Sunday, the Lakers have four games in the next five days. They have the NBA’s sixth-hardest remaining schedule, so these games without James are all the more perilous.
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The Lakers at one point held the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. Entering Sunday, however, they had fallen to No. 5. They are tied with the Memphis Grizzlies, Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets in the loss column with 25 losses apiece, but the Lakers have three fewer wins. Picking those wins up while James is sidelined won’t be easy, especially because the Lakers are still without fellow starting forward Rui Hachimura, who is also expected back within the week.
The Lakers will be conservative with James. The goal is to get him back healthy in time for the postseason and, as a 40-year-old, the risk of re-injury is significant. As he showed in 2023, when he returned from a foot injury in late March, he can get himself ready for the postseason quickly. He just has to be physically capable of performing once there. Until he’s back to full strength, the Lakers will continue to lean on deadline acquisition Luka Dončić and breakout guard Austin Reaves.
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