Tag: Lakers

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LeBron James returns after 13-game injury absence, scores 19 points off bench in Lakers loss to Bulls

LeBron James returns after 13-game injury absence, scores 19 points off bench in Lakers loss to Bulls

LeBron James made his return from a right foot injury on Sunday, but the Los Angeles Lakers’ three-game winning streak came to an end with a 118-108 defeat to the Chicago Bulls. James finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and three assists in 29 minutes

The Lakers announced less than an hour before tipoff that James would be available after missing the past 13 games. He tested his foot in pregame warmups and was deemed good to go for the Sunday matinee. However, James was not part of the Lakers starting lineup. Instead, James came off the bench for just the second time in his NBA career (1,680 games counting the playoffs) and the first time since 2007.

James said that his injury was actually a torn tendon that typically requires much longer than four weeks to recover from. In fact, multiple doctors recommended season-ending surgery, but James sought another opinion from the “LeBron James of feet” and was able to return to the court on Sunday. 

The injury itself came in the middle of a Feb. 26 clash with the Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers trailed by as many as 27 points in the game, but James played through the injury to help the Lakers complete the comeback. He finished that contest with 26 points, eight rebounds and three assists, but had been sidelined ever since.

The Lakers did more than just tread water in his absence. They went 8-5 without James, and after spending most of the season in the No. 13 slot in the Western Conference standings, had risen to No. 8. after Friday’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder got the Lakers to .500 for the first time this season. With the defeat to the Bulls, they are now back under .500 at 37-38, and have dropped down to No. 9 in the jumbled playoff picture. 

Of course, getting to the postseason is one thing. Winning there is another. A hobbled James would have made a real playoff run almost impossible. Anthony Davis has kept the team afloat without James. Austin Reaves has emerged as a key starter and ball-handler with James out, but ultimately, this team’s postseason dreams rely on having two superstars. James is one of them, and the roster around him looks significantly stronger since the Lakers traded Russell Westbrook for D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt at the deadline.

After Sunday, the Lakers have seven games left on their schedule. There is still time for LeBron to quickly ramp up for a postseason run. In 2021, James returned from an injury with only two games left in the regular season and was never quite himself in a first-round loss to Phoenix. With more time left to work with, though, the Lakers have never looked like more of a postseason threat than they do today. 

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D’Angelo Russell injury update: Lakers guard to miss fourth straight game with ankle injury

D’Angelo Russell injury update: Lakers guard to miss fourth straight game with ankle injury

Initially, Los Angeles Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell said he was “not worried” about his sprained right ankle, an injury he sustained in the first quarter of the Lakers’ first game after the All-Star break. A week later, Russell is still sidelined because of it, and he won’t return on Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves, either. 

Russell, who has missed three straight games and only logged nine minutes against the Golden State Warriors last Wednesday, told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that he’ll miss his fourth straight game on Friday. Asked if he could come back when the Lakers face the Warriors again on Sunday, Russell said, “We’ll see once we get through Friday.”

The Lakers are 30-33 and coming off a 123-117 win against an Oklahoma City Thunder team that was missing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. LeBron James didn’t play in that game because he’s dealing with a right foot injury that will sideline him for more than three weeks. Anthony Davis didn’t play in that game, either, as a precautionary measure — it was the second game of a back-to-back, and Davis is still working his way back from a stress reaction in his right foot. With the Lakers in desperate need of scoring, Dennis Schroder scored 26 points in 37 minutes, some of them after spraining his left ankle on a drive.

With 19 games left in the regular season, Los Angeles is in 11th place in the West. Only three games, however, separate the fifth-place Golden State Warriors (32-30) and the 12th-place Portland Trail Blazers (29-33). There is enough time for all of the teams in the middle of the pack to either make the playoffs outright or fall out of the play-in entirely, which means that all of these injury problems are terribly inconvenient for the Lakers. 

In theory, Los Angeles is better equipped now than it was earlier in the season to deal with James’ absence — between Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley, all of whom were acquired at the trade deadline, the team has added shooting, playmaking, defensive versatility and depth. This assumes, however, that, beyond James’ injury, the roster is relatively healthy. As long as Russell remains out of the lineup, the offense will have to be heavily tilted toward Davis and Schroder. Russell’s absence hurts the Lakers’ spacing, too.

Russell sprained his ankle when he accidentally stepped on Donte DiVincenzo’s foot before inbounding the ball. He called it “pretty unlucky,” which also describes his team at the moment. Regardless of who is in the lineup, if the Lakers are hoping to bring James back and try to make some sort of playoff run, they need to beat a bunch of teams that are also fighting for playoff/play-in position. 

Friday marks the beginning of a five-game homestand, in which Los Angeles will host the Timberwolves, Warriors, Grizzlies, Raptors and Knicks. After that, the Lakers will go on the road to play the Pelicans and Rockets on a back-to-back, then return home for another five games, hosting the Mavericks, Magic, Suns, Thunder and Bulls.