The Los Angeles Lakers have a tough road ahead of them. They struggled a ton during the start of the season, and if they want to make a serious playoff push, they can’t afford to mess around this late in the year, especially with how close the Western Conference standings are.
On Sunday night, however, they dropped the ball against the Chicago Bulls. LeBron James made his return after missing 14 games with a foot injury, but it wasn’t enough. After the game, he spoke about the Lakers’ playoff chase and his concern level heading into the final portion of the year.
“No concern,” James said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “Just go out and play ball. That’s it. Go and play ball. Play at a high level. Give yourselves a chance to win.”
James played fairly well off the bench. He put up 19 points, eight rebounds, and three assists on 6-of-11 shooting from the field and 0-of-2 shooting from behind the three-point line.
He also spoke about his thought process when he out.
“I mean, they go 8-5, and now we’re sitting with a chance to be ahead of the Play-In. We can actually be a top-eight seed. That definitely changed my mindset on coming back and trying to be a part of this,” James said. “Well, I don’t really want to say changed my mindset. It just enhanced what I was trying to do as far as my workouts, as far as my treatment, and everything. But they played such great basketball, and I was just ecstatic. From me being in the boot to me getting out of the boot. You guys saw me on the sidelines. Just feeling so happy about what the guys were doing. So, definitely wanted to be a part of it.”
LeBron James Delivers Injury Update
While James managed to make his return to the court on Sunday, he’s not out of the woods quite yet. However, when asked about the potential need for surgery, James said he’s not thinking about that right now.
“I don’t know. Right now, I don’t need it,” James said. “So, we’ll see what happens. I’ll probably get another MRI at the end of the season and go from there. But if I end up having to get surgery after the season, you guys won’t know. I don’t talk to you guys in the offseason, and by the time next season starts, I’ll be fine. I’ll be ready to go.”
Darvin Ham Sounds Off on LeBron James
Head coach Darvin Ham stated that the goal in LA’s game against the Bulls was to get James reacclimated a bit.
“Tonight, it was really getting Bron back in and back out there,” Ham said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “It was great. And now we just got to, again, everybody gets on the same page, get back in rhythm with one another. Not saying that we were out of rhythm, but just getting back together and just playing. You know, 12:30 game, whatever. You can use excuse after excuse after excuse with Bron just now coming back, whatever. We just got to come out and play basketball as we’ve been. Playing on our toes. And we’ll fix the rest.”