Lakers forward LeBron James is expected to miss at least one week due to his abdominal strain, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The team hasn’t confirmed a timeline for James’ return, but ruled him out for Thursday’s game against Oklahoma City. Charania says the Lakers want to be cautious with LeBron’s ailment, and Dave McMenamin of ESPN has heard the same thing. A source told McMenamin that the medical staff wants to “take their time” with James’ recovery.
James, who missed two games last week due to a sore right ankle, has averaged 24.8 PPG, 7.0 APG, and 5.5 RPG in six games (37.1 MPG) so far this season.
The Lakers have been one of the teams hit hardest by injuries in the early going. Trevor Ariza (ankle), Talen Horton-Tucker (hamstring), Kendrick Nunn (knee), and Wayne Ellington (hamstring) have yet to play at all this season, though Ellington is considered probable for Thursday’s game.
Assuming LeBron misses the next week, he’ll be sidelined for games against Portland (on Saturday), Charlotte (Monday), and Miami (Wednesday) in addition to tonight’s OKC matchup.
I think we are finally (don’t mean that in a get this guy out of here way) starting to see the decline start.
Yeah it’s no secret that he’s getting up there, hopefully they are able to find away to manage his minutes and keep him healthy moving forward.
Its partially that he is stuBron and wont let them rest him on back to backs and what have you. He wants to play his full minutes in every game that isnt a blow out, but should be playing for a 16 game season.
It more shows his will to win because he wants to play 40 minutes a game. Vogel needs to have him play between 32 and 36 minutes a game. take him out when the team goes up 20 points. Its also good for the bench to get minutes so when needed to be called on they know the rotations. Vogel will burn this team out with the heavy minutes he has the big 3 play.
I think it’s amplified by his team. With the right group, Lebron could afford to miss some weeks during the season. When your other star AD gets injured a lot and most of the rest are old guys you don’t have much margin for error. Looking at what is going on in DC, I think this Westbrook trade closed the championship window for the Lakers.
Yup. I thought even last season, pre-injuries, he looked a little rotund and less explosive. Then in the playoffs he was clearly still hurt.
It’s all relative for LeBron, as even in decline he could easily still be a top 15 guy this year and next. But the days of him being a shoe-in a best player in the league might be on their way out.
As Barkley famously said, “Father Time is undefeated.” Even a dude in peak condition like LBJ is eventually going to slip as age catches up. Only Brady, who clearly has a deal with the devil, has been immune.
This comes one game too late for Houston after they lost by two points in LA on a last-second 3-pointer that missed by an inch. Sure the Lakers were without Ariza, THT, Nunn, and Ellington but the Rockets were without Gordon, Theis, and House who are just as important to their rotation as the 4 guys out for LA (probably even more).
Rockets were also without Wall.
That’s true, but it was their choice to go with the younger option.
They would certainly be committing far fewer turnovers with Wall at PG, but they chose to have Kevin Porter starting there instead so he could develop alongside Green as their backcourt of the future.
Westbrook played very well….
He played very well against OKC tonight, but the Lakers are now 0-2 against the Thunder this season with LeBron missing both games.
Make no mistake about it, every single player in the league would give all they have & more to be in decline like LBJ if his decline mean 25/6/7… I mean hardly there is a handful of guys doing that… so I take the declining guy over anyone else in their peak, right?