LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers are not having a good time this year. They just fell to 2-9 after a loss against the Los Angeles Clippers, with LeBron exiting the game with an apparent groin injury. A groin injury for LeBron could mean a lengthy absence incoming for the man chasing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record this season.
LeBron had a slow start to the season and everybody could see it. His efficiency was down and the Lakers did not look good even with him leading the charge. People have wondered whether we are finally seeing the decline of LeBron James 20 seasons into his career. His plus-minus stats on the Lakers this season would affirm that, as his -61 is the worst on the Lakers.
hmm pic.twitter.com/fLfsJvRTFY
— StatMuse (@statmuse) November 10, 2022
Plus-minus can be a misleading stat but even the ones that have seen Laker games would agree that James hasn’t been as influential in the outcome of the games as he used to be. He has also played with a lot of different lineups this season and they have all had wildly inconsistent results.
Is LeBron James Going To Find His Form Again?
LeBron is prone to starting seasons slow at this stage of his career, warming up as the season goes on. That process was already taking longer than usual with LeBron nursing an illness and a foot injury, but his most recent groin injury could be a major setback that looms over LeBron’s season.
Even when he gets back onto the court, he will need a certain amount of games to get back into the rhythm of playing basketball. That doesn’t bode well for the results of the Lakers when he’s off the court and definitely not when he’s trying to find his legs on the court. Others are going to surpass LeBron with a worse plus-minus as the season goes on, but this is not the start anyone envisioned.
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