The Los Angeles Lakers have looked very good since trading for Luka Doncic, but everything changed in Hollywood on Sunday night. Late in the Lakers’ 111-101 loss to the Boston Celtics, star forward LeBron James limped off the court with a groin injury.
James doesn’t seem to think the groin injury is that serious, but he could still miss multiple weeks as he gets healthy. That would be a crushing blow for the Lakers, who lost just their fifth game in their last 24 outings on Sunday night. After the game, Doncic gave his instant reaction to the unfortunate injury, via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
“Obviously, to get injured at this time, those [groin] injuries are — I don’t want to say the worst, but they are tough to deal with,” Doncic said, per McMenamin. “So just take his time. And we got to have as a team a next-man-up mentality.”
James had been playing some of his best basketball over the last few weeks, so this is unfortunate timing for a Lakers team that is trying to secure the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.
Now, it feels likely that Doncic will have the chance to take over and try to carry this Lakers squad for a majority of the remainder of the regular season.
Lakers can survive without LeBron James… in the short-term
The Lakers are better-equipped to survive without LeBron James for an extended period of time than they were earlier in the season because of the Luka Doncic trade, but it still isn’t an ideal scenario.
Doncic is the type of player who can carry a roster that doesn’t have another star on it. He can score at will, put up big numbers and also create open looks for some of the Lakers’ supporting pieces. However, losing the connectivity, rim pressure and basketball IQ that James provides will still be very difficult to overcome.
Many Lakers fans will be having flashbacks to 2018-19. James suffered a similar groin injury on Christmas Day that season and missed 17 consecutive games, essentially knocking the Lakers out of playoff contention. Los Angeles is certainly hoping that this injury isn’t as serious and he can be back on the court sooner rather than later.
James and Doncic have proven to be a very formidable tandem, which makes the Lakers very scary to play against in a playoff series. This injury will make it much more difficult for them to improve their seeding and eventually get home-court advantage in the second round, but the Lakers will still back themselves if healthy.
The Lakers have 20 games left this season and have five weeks until the end of the regular season, six until their first playoff game. Getting James healthy during that time should be the No. 1 priority in Los Angeles.
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