The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a significant blow in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden, with LeBron James exiting due to injury. James headed back to the locker room during a timeout with 6:44 left in the game, and the Lakers would later rule him out for the night.
James had 22 points (11-23 FG), 14 rebounds, and nine assists in the game before he was forced to exit. The Lakers were hoping to pull off a sensational comeback win here after going down by as many as 22 points, but the injury all but ended their chances of doing so. They managed to cut the deficit to four even after James’ departure but just couldn’t keep pace with the Celtics in the final minutes and lost 111-101.
While the loss would have stung the Lakers, they’d be more worried about LeBron’s status. He had missed a significant amount of time with a groin injury in his first season with the franchise, and they’d be hoping that won’t be the case this time. We’ll wait and see what the diagnosis is.
What is so crushing about the timing of this injury is that James was playing some of the best basketball he had in a while. The 40-year-old was named Western Conference Player of the Month for February and was thriving playing alongside Luka Doncic.
James and Doncic had led the Lakers on an impressive eight-game winning streak, and all that momentum has now seemingly come to a crashing halt. They have now dropped to 40-22 this season and will be at risk of tumbling down the standings if James misses a big chunk of the remaining games in this regular season.
Update:
Lakers insider Dave McMenamin has provided an update regarding James, and it isn’t a positive one. McMenamin stated there is no timetable at present for a return, but there are fears the 21-time All-Star will be out for multiple weeks.
“It is too early to project an accurate timetable for how long LeBron James could miss because of his left groin injury, sources told ESPN. However one source said the initial thought is that it will sideline James for a matter of weeks, not a matter of days.”
This would be a hammer blow for the Lakers. The regular season ends in about a month, and James looks set to miss most of their remaining games, if not all of them.
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