West Notes: Lakers, LeBron James, Warriors, Bob Myers, Suns

Lakers

LeBron James‘ ankle injury won’t require surgery, but it is too painful to play on at the moment, per Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report.

The Lakers announced that James has a right foot tendon injury and will be re-evaluated in about three weeks, as we relayed here.

“So what I can say on LeBron James is that sources did inform me that he will not require surgery,” Haynes said on the This League Uncut podcast with Marc Stein of The Stein Line. “That’s good news. … Could LeBron get out there and play right now? It’d be a risk, but I think he probably could if he necessarily had to.

“But it’s too much of a risk. It’s too much pain right now. The plan right now is to get him as much time to heal for this rehab process, but the Lakers have got to win. They’ve got to keep winning. They’ve got to buy him time.”

• Coach Darvin Ham said the Lakers are still determined to get to the playoffs despite James’ extended absence. “We got to continue to play the right way, we got to continue to be together and we also got to continue on with the mission,” Ham said, via Matt Peralta of Lakers Nation. “The mission hasn’t changed for us. The goal of securing a playoff spot is still very much alive and it’s unfortunate that Bron went down but injuries are a real part of our sport.”

Warriors

GM Bob Myers indicated he doesn’t think injured star Steph Curry will be out much longer.

“That’s the hope,” Myers said on Steiny & Guru of 95.7 The Game. “I think the reason why we can’t give you more definitive information is it is kind of predicated on how he feels. Can he get up to the workload?”

As a team, the Warriors are just trying to survive and advance to a playoff berth, and perhaps even home-court advantage in the first round.

“The beginning couldn’t have been more different,” Myers said on the difference between this season and last. “We had at least formed an identity defensively last year. That’s what we struggled to grab this year.”  

• Myers added that he’s been impressed with how Klay Thompson has steeped up in Curry’s absence. “He’s kind of put the team on his back, in some respect,” Myers said. “You can feel his will at the game. … It’s the best version of Klay in the last few months as a teammate and as a leader. He’s playing great. You look at him rebounding better.” 
• You can listen to Myers’ full appearance in the playback box at the very bottom of this post.

Suns

In case you missed it, Kevin Durant scored 23 points in his Suns debut, finishing second on the team to Devin Booker (37 points) in a road win over the Hornets on Wednesday.

Durant, who had been out since early January with an MCL sprain, finished 10-of-15 shooting.

“I feel like I fit in pretty well,” Durant told reporters. “Everybody out there was trying to make me as comfortable as possible. I just have to keep riding it, man.”

Coach Monty Williams added that’s the goal — to make Durant as feel as comfortable as possible and to focus on just playing the games.

“I think there’s too many players in the NBA that get too much pressure to lead,” Williams said. “I just don’t think it’s necessary. It’s my job to lead. The players do it in spots, but that’s the one thing I told him, I said, ‘I’m not looking for you to lead. We just want you to be yourself and hoop,’ and I think that’s where he’s the most free to be himself.”