BOSTON, March 9: LeBron James didn’t sound overly concerned after straining his groin in the waning minutes of Los Angeles’ 111-101 loss to Boston on Saturday night.
He also wasn’t willing to put a timetable on how fast he could be back on the court as the Lakers look to maintain their recent surge in the standings.
“Not much concern,” James said. “Obviously, I’m day-to-day. I’ll look at it each day and see if it gets better, and take the proper measures to see what I need to do moving forward.”
James exited during a timeout with 6:44 to play after contesting a layup by Jaylen Brown. He walked gingerly to the huddle during an ensuing timeout and then barely moved before making his way to the locker room with trainers. He finished with 22 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists.
He said his first thoughts went to his first season in Los Angeles in 2018 when he suffered a groin injury during a Christmas Day matchup with Golden State. He missed the next 17 games and the injury bothered him for most of the remainder of the season.
“I’ve been there before and I know what type of injury we’re dealing with.,” James said.
The good news is he doesn’t believe this latest injury is as severe as the 2018 one.
He also said he thought about former teammate Anthony Davis, who incurred his current groin injury in his first game in Dallas following his trade for Luka Doncic.
Doncic just wants James to give the injury the rest it needs.
“Obviously, he’s got to take his time,” Doncic said. “Those injuries, I won’t say are the worse, but they’re tough to deal with.”
In the meantime James has confidence that his team, which had its eight-game win streak snapped by Boston, can fill in the gaps as it looks to maintain its place in the West standings. The Lakers (40-22) fell to third place behind Denver after Saturday’s loss and face a tough upcoming stretch.
The Lakers continue a four-game trip Monday night at Brooklyn. It concludes with matchups at Milwaukee and Denver on Thursday and Friday. They then return home March 16 for a four-game homestand that begins with Phoenix and bookends with return visits from the Nuggets and Bucks.
“It doesn’t matter who’s in the lineup, we have to play our game,” James said. “We’ve had guys in and out of the lineup the majority of the year. And we’ve had guys in and out of the lineup the last six weeks. … Nothing changes.” (AP)
