LeBron James wasn’t overly worried.
“Not much concern,” LeBron said postgame about the strained groin that ended his night midway through the fourth quarter of the Lakers loss to the Celtics on Saturday, via the Associated Press. “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.”
The Lakers organization is more concerned and LeBron could be out for weeks, one source told Dave McMenamin of ESPN. That will be 1-2 weeks, reports Shams Charania of ESPN, adding that there will be a second evaluation once the swelling goes down.
Traditionally, groin strains are tricky because, like hamstrings, they are easy to re-injure if a player returns too early. With the Lakers looking like a top-four playoff team in the wake of the Luka Doncic trade, the organization is going to be cautious and wants to make sure LeBron is right for the playoffs, not dealing with something that lingers because of an early return.
LeBron is averaging 25 points, 8.5 assists, and 8 rebounds a game playing at an All-NBA level this season, and in recent weeks has looked like a guy who could get bottom-of-the-ballot MVP votes. What’s been most impressive since the Doncic trade (and even a little before) is how well LeBron has played on defense, where he has been an All-Defensive level player of late.
LeBron is on pace for All-NBA honors but needs to play seven more games to meet the NBA’s 65-game threshold. That means he would have to return by the start of April at the latest.
With LeBron out the Lakers offense should still rack up points with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves doing the shot creation, but the defense could suffer without LeBron’s IQ and physicality on that end.
