The Los Angeles Lakers were hit with a deflating news about LeBron James‘ groin injury following their 111-101 loss to their arch-rivals Boston Celtics on Saturday, March 8.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, James is expected to miss at least one to two weeks with a groin strain.
“James will wait for the groin injury to calm down over the next 24 hours and receive another evaluation,” Charania wrote on X.
The 40-year-old James left the game with 6:44 remaining in the fourth quarter and did not return.
“The last score I had on Jaylen Brown, I know I overextended a little bit, a couple pivots and then when I landed, I felt it,” James told reporters about the moment he knew he sustained the injury.
James returned to the bench with the Lakers trailing by only four, 96-92.
“That was very frustrating not being out there,” James said. “That’s the moment you live for especially in a game like this.”
Without James, the Celtics went on a 9-3 run to restore their double-digit win and cruised to the victory against their arch-rivals.
LeBron Downplays Injury
“Obviously, I’m concerned,” Lakers coach JJ Redick told reporters about James’ injury.
But James tried to downplayed it.
“I’m not much concerned,” James told reporters. “Obviously, it’s day-to-day. We’ll look at it each day and see if it gets better.
James had this injury before during his first season with the Lakers which caused him to miss 17 games. But he is confident this time, it’s not as serious as that one.
“It’s not as bad,” James confidently said.
With James missing the rest of their four-game road trip and possibly more, the Lakers are in a precarious situation. The loss snapped their eight-game winning streak and dropped them to third after momentarily held on to the No. 2 seed in the West.
James expressed confidence the rest of the Lakers will step up in his absence.
“It doesn’t matter who’s in the lineup,” James said. “We have to play our game. We’ve had guys in out our lineup the majority of the year and then had guys in out our lineup over the last couple of weeks and we’ve been playing great ball. So, nothing changes.”
Except the fact that James is their top scorer, rebounder and playmaker. In his 22nd season in the league, James is still averaging 25.0 points, 8.2 rebounds and 8.5 assists.
Next Man Up Mentatility
James’ absence puts more pressure on Luka Dončić, who is averaging 24.7 points, 8.1 rebounds, 7.6 assists and 1.8 steals, since joining the Lakers via the shocking midseason trade.
“Obviously, he will take his time,” Dončić said of James. “Those injuries are — I wouldn’t say they’re the worse but they’re — tough to deal with. So just take time.”
There’s no other way to fill up the huge hole James is leaving.
“We got to have ‘next man up’ mentality,” Dončić told reporters.
Dončić was seen stretching his back on the ABC broadcast but the Slovenian star, like James, also downplayed it.
“It’s something I’m dealing with, but I’m fine.
Dončić led the Lakers with 34 points, seven rebounds and three assists but he was minus-19. James finished with a near triple-double (22 points, 14 rebounds and 9 assists) but he was minus-11 in the game they lost in the third quarter where the Celtics outscored them 29-13.
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