The Lakers lost one game in their last nine and immediately dropped from second to third place in the Western Conference. How’s that for a tight race?
Now, they will have to go at least a week without LeBron James, who’s out with an injured groin, suffered in Saturday’s road loss to the Celtics.
Per Shams Charania of ESPN, James is out for one-to-two weeks. “James will wait for the groin injury to calm down over the next 24 hours and receive another evaluation,” Charania wrote.
The Lakers (40-22) are continuing their trip through the East. Without James, obviously, they’re a completely different team. It’s then Luka Doncic and role players.
“This would be one of the worst portions of the regular season for James to potentially miss, with the Lakers playing the No. 2 Denver Nuggets twice over the next 10 days,” wrote Jovan Buha of The Athletic. “The Lakers finish their road trip in Brooklyn on Monday, and then in Milwaukee on Thursday and Denver on Friday. That back-to-back kicks off an eight-day stretch in which they play three consecutive back-to-backs: at Milwaukee/at Denver, vs. Phoenix/vs. San Antonio, and vs. Denver/vs. Milwaukee.”
LA is a half-game behind the Nuggets in the Western Conference standings, two ahead of the Grizzlies and 2.5 ahead of the Rockets. Translation: With 20 games left, anything is possible in the West.
“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, via Buha. “So, just take his time. And we got to have as a team a next-man-up mentality.”
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