The Los Angeles Lakers received good news about LeBron James. However, if he were to be out for an extended period of time, they would have been in trouble.
On Christmas Day, a big win by the Los Angeles Lakers was overshadowed by an injury to LeBron James. After a fantastic first half of basketball with a double-double, James went down in the third quarter with a groin injury.
After the injury, cameras picked up James telling the trainers that he felt a pop. This, of course, would have been a major injury for James. However, the MRI the next day for James came back clean, and LeBron is listed as day-to-day.
UPDATE: LeBron James will not travel with the team to Sacramento for tomorrow's game against the Kings.
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) December 26, 2018
He will be listed as day-to-day moving forward. https://t.co/8maL1EKDew
While the Lakers did beat the two-time defending champs in the second half without LeBron, that shouldn’t be an indication that they could do it on a consistent basis. While last year proved that the Lakers were an improving team, it was still a team that wasn’t that close to making the playoffs.
Since signing LeBron, the Lakers have made a huge jump in the Western Conference standings. However, those are standings that are very close. Just four games separate the first place team in the West from the eighth-place team in the West.
While the Lakers were able to handle the rest of the game against the Warriors, losing James would force a lot of players to step up. As a player that is able to come close to a triple-double every night, that is tough to replace.
Fortunately for the Lakers, they won’t have to survive long without James. While James was announced out against the Kings, him being listed as day-to-day indicates that he shouldn’t be out for long.
So far this season, the Lakers have been able to play very well with players like Rajon Rondo, Brandon Ingram, and most recently, JaVale McGee missing time. Despite this, the Lakers find themselves as a top team in the West. However, that would have all changed if James missed a significant amount of time.
While he isn’t traveling Thursday, there is certainly a chance that James could be back on Friday night against the Clippers.