Nothing is more important to the Lakers right now than LeBron James’ left groin. The star suffered a strain in the fourth quarter of the game against the Celtics and after the first scans it is believed that he could be out for several weeks. “There’s not much concern. We’ll go day by day,” he reassured. It’s not a new injury for him.
LeBron recalled that on Christmas Day 2018, in his first season with the Lakers, a groin tear caused him to miss 17 games. “No, it’s not as bad as that,” he said before turning to his locker room locker and knocking on wood. “I’ve been there before and I know what kind of injury I’m dealing with,” he said calmly. The tests he will undergo will determine more precisely how long he will be out of action.
There is not much concern. We will go day by day
The injury comes at a time when the Lakers were flying with eight straight wins and an 18-4 record in their last 22 games had put them second in the West. Now they face a tough schedule. They are on a road trip with three games remaining, with tough visits to Milwaukee and Denver. Then they will face those same two teams in Los Angeles. The games against the Nuggets could define their chances in the Conference. There are 40 days to go until the start of the playoffs.
“Getting injured at this time… Those groin injuries, I don’t want to say they’re the worst, but they’re hard to deal with. He’ll have to take his time and we have to have a team mentality,” lamented Luka Doncic, whose weight on the team will increase exponentially with LeBron’s absence. “We’ve had a lot of situations where a player has been affected by some kind of injury or a trade or whatever and we’ve done a great job of recovering. I don’t expect anything different,” said Austin Reaves.
Appeal to defense
The Lakers are without the 25.1 points, 8.5 assists and 8.1 rebounds that LeBron was averaging this season. At 40 years old, he had numbers very similar to when he was MVP 11 seasons ago and had just surpassed 50,000 points in his career between the regular season and playoffs. Now, the Angelenos will have to appeal to a defense that is the most efficient in the NBA since January 30, although LeBron had a lot to do with it. “We just have to keep playing hard and defending,” coach JJ Redick recommended.
The forward is optimistic about the performance of his teammates when he is not there. “We can compete against anyone. We’ll be fine,” said LeBron, who will not return to Los Angeles and will finish the tour with the rest of the team. He believes that the next games will be good to continue building chemistry: “We have to keep developing our habits. We are not where the Celtics, the champions, are. They have been playing together for a long time and know what they want to do. We made an acquisition and we’re still trying to build. The number one goal is to see how we can be 100 percent, get all our guys together and see exactly how we look.”
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