The Los Angeles Lakers’ honeymoon phase may be coming to an abrupt end.
On Saturday night, the Lakers fell to the rival Celtics in Boston by a 111-101 final score. The Lakers trailed by as many as 22 points in the game and also lost star player LeBron James to an injury in the fourth quarter.
With just over seven minutes left in the contest, James did a double-pivot move on Boston’s Jaylen Brown in the post and converted the basket. But James appeared to be very gimpy on his way back up the floor. Here is the video.
The Celtics then scored on the ensuing possession, and the Lakers called timeout. James exited the game during the timeout and was seen stretching out his groin area on the sideline.
Shortly afterwards, the Lakers announced that James had suffered a “groin strain” and was out for the rest of the contest. He finished with 22 points, 14 rebounds, and nine assists in 35 minutes of play.
A groin strain is usually a multi-week injury and could sideline James for an even longer period of time, depending on the severity. It is also worth noting that James is now 40 years old and still has a heavy workload, appearing in 58 of 61 games for the Lakers this season and averaging 34.9 minutes per night. James previously had a severe groin injury in the 2018-19 season as well, limiting him to just 55 games played that year.
Dave McMenamin of ESPN also reported after the game that the “initial thought” is that James will be now be sidelined for a matter of “weeks” rather than days.
Ever since the addition of Luka Doncic, the Lakers were coasting and had won eight games in a row entering play this weekend to shoot all the way up to second in the Western Conference. But they lost to the Celtics on Saturday and also lost James to a concerning injury (to go along with the other injury that the four-time NBA MVP was already managing this season).
