One of the biggest stories of the season was the Los Angeles Lakers getting off to a rough start. They bounced back nicely, but a recent injury to LeBron James could send them spiraling.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, James will miss at least a week due to an abdominal strain. He also mentioned that the Lakers want to be cautious with James’ injury this early in the season.
So far this year, LA has been squeaking by in some games which they probably should be winning by larger margins. For example, they just barely beat the rebuilding Houston Rockets the other night, 119-117.
James actually played in that game, too, but Houston’s top players showed out. Meanwhile, the Lakers didn’t get much help outside of their main four scorers (James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, and Carmelo Anthony).
An injury to LeBron James could spell disaster for the Los Angeles Lakers
This new injury could go one of two ways. Either the Los Angeles Lakers look better because Westbrook can run the offense on his own (less likely), or the team struggles because they are without their best player (more likely),
Based on last night’s game vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder, the latter is seeming like the more likely option. OKC beat the Lakers 107-104 behind a monster performance by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The craziest part about the result is that the Thunder only have two wins on the season – both against the Los Angeles Lakers. Funnily enough, James did not play in either of those games.
The Lakers are now 1-2 in games James did not play in, meaning they will be tested during this time that he is out. Losing him for at least a week could spell trouble for an already struggling Lakers squad.
While the team’s issue so far this season has been defense (they rank 27th in opponents’ points per game at 112.0), they will likely struggle on the offensive end, too, with James gone.
He’s one of their top scorers and, obviously, one of the best playmakers in the league. The team has Westbrook still to fill that role, but he’s been having a rough go of it this year.
Westbrook ranks second in the league in turnovers per game (4.8) and he just seems to be slipping up at the worst of times. The perfect example of this came last night when he made a costly turnover in the final seconds of their game vs. the Thunder.
Losing James seems like a dagger to the heart of the Los Angeles Lakers right now. They have the talent to power through it on paper, but can they back that up with on-court results?