Lakers star LeBron James scored 39 points in New Orleans on Sunday, but it wasn’t enough to lead his team to a win over the Pelicans, who came back from a 20-point halftime deficit to beat L.A. by a score of 116-108. To make matters worse for the Lakers, James turned his left ankle in the second quarter and said the injury felt “horrible” after the game, as ESPN’s Dave McMenamin writes.
“I mean, I have no idea how I finished the game, to be honest, after watching that replay,” said James, who played 42 minutes. “It’s pretty nasty.”
The loss dropped the Lakers to 10th in the West, and they now lead the No. 11 Spurs by just one gameand face a difficult schedule in the last two weeks of the regular season. James, who has already been battling a knee injury this season, is hopeful that his latest ailment doesn’t force him out of action at all, with L.A. battling to secure a play-in spot.
“I hope not, because I hate missing games,” he said on Sunday night, per Kyle Goon of The Southern California News Group. “That’s not in my nature, so I’ve already started the process of treatment right after the game, I got on it right away and obviously I’ll get more done on the flight and we’ll land in Dallas tonight, around the clock tomorrow and see how I feel on Tuesday.
“… I still feel like if I’m on the floor and I can make things happen then we still got a pretty good chance to make something out of this season.”
Here’s more on the Lakers and LeBron:
- James’ ankle injury felt like “the moment that might signal the end of the Lakers season,” according to Bill Oram of The Athletic.
- James referred to Sunday’s game, in which the Lakers turned a 20-point halftime lead into an eight-point loss, as a “microcosm” of the club’s season, per Andrew Lopez of ESPN. “We haven’t been able to sustain all year, and tonight was one of those instances once again,” James said. “It feels like s–t. I mean, excuse my language, but that’s what it feels like. I came in with the mindset understanding it was a playoff-type atmosphere, playoff implications and things of that nature. … It feels like a wasted opportunity, obviously, for myself and for our team. We weren’t able to get it done.”
- Head coach Frank Vogel acknowledged how precarious the Lakers’ position is, telling reporters on Sunday night that “time’s running out” on the team, writes Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times. “We got to get some wins. We got to put some wins together and turn the attention to Dallas,” Vogel said, referring to L.A.’s Tuesday opponent. “Whatever it takes to beat Dallas, we got to do.”
- The Lakers will play in Dallas on Tuesday and Utah on Thursday before hosting the Pelicans on Friday and the Nuggets on Sunday. It won’t get any easier from there, as they travel to Phoenix and Golden State next week.
Extremely tough & embarrassing loss for the Lakers but man this guy LeBron is great at basketball. What a performance by the boy last night. What a season he’s having, regardless of his age. And what a career he’s had. MJ was incredible but Bron is definitely the best I’ve ever seen
Lebron is great but his games are garbage games. It’s kinda playing and scoring in garbage minutes. We all know there is a fine difference playing with/without pressure and/or teams caring about results(playing defense, etc).
Garbage games? I don’t understand what you mean by that. LeBron has played as good or better in game7s than anyone else in NBA history. He scored 41 in back2back Finals games when his team was down 3-1. He’s played with more pressure than any other NBA player ever & somehow still managed to exceed expectations
I am talking about this season.
I still don’t understand what you mean by the term “garbage games”
@Michol
What are garbage minutes for LA in games this year? When they were already up significantly and then LeBron excelled?
If anything. I would expect a coach to put him in at the most optimal times.
Explain please.
Lost season and lost games. At some point, games dont matter, winning a game dont matter, playing defense dont matter. Just score, focus on scoring and let’s be happy. Let’s play 35-40 mins and get as many points as possible, and then take few games off since knees are swollen. WTH! What happened to LBJ?? He has always and should be playing quality minutes, games that matter and all for postseason title run.
Therefore, his stats this year as not as impressive… it’s meaningless. There are a lot of nba players who can score 20-25 points. So what!
Another thing thats bothersome with LBJ this year is he has become very soft with his teammates. Why doesnt he keep them- his fellow all stars accountable? He should be all over Westbrook, AD, Anthony, and on… He should be yelling, getting angry at them instead of smiling and being friendly with them. It’s a disastrous season and LBJ needs to take ownership. It’s almost as if he has become indifferent with winning and losing.
lmao nice joke
LeBron still can play but he gets hurt repeatedly during the season as he gets older so you can’t rely on him as a full time player anymore.. he misses roughly a third of his games or more due to injuries and Davis misses more than LeBron does and he’s young… .. If your two best players are not in the court on a regular basis you can’t win… period
Vogel is done. The Spurs will overtake LA for the 10th seed. LA got their chip from the AD trade but it will take a crafty GM along with some dumb ones around the league for LA to dig out of their current death spiral.
We all know Vogel is gone at the end of the season. Trading AD for a package of players would be their best bet to bounce back but I doubt they will do that.
But who is gonna pay for damaged goods?
Washington said that last year about Westbrook.
I said “dumb” but what is the difference between that and “optimistic” in the case of AD?
What is expected when a NBA player his age plays the most minutes in the league. I blame Vogel on this by playing Lebron 40 minutes a night every game. The older you get the longer it takes to respond back from injury and tiredness. Need to sit him for a few games until he is 100% healthy again.
You really think Frank is dictating LBJ’s minutes, and not LeBron?? Loll
lol perfect time for an injury when you lose the playoff hopes
Memphis is screwed
how is Memphis screwed? they have only looked better as the season progresses.
“I mean, I have no idea how I finished the game, to be honest, after watching that replay,” said James, who played 42 minutes. “It’s pretty nasty.”
It’s a good thing Bron Bron isn’t a narcissistic…
I think he meant the adrenaline covered the pain a bit.
So sad to see. Would rather Lebron not have have an excuse when he loses in the playin game.
Do you remember what happened last time he played in a play-in game?
Yes. They won the play-in, then lost against Phoenix and were eliminated in the 1st round. So they didn’t get very far.
The most important thing to come out of this report: there’s a reporter named Goon?
Rest up uncle
The NOP game wasn’t a microcosm of the LAL season. Their season hasn’t been about anything as intriguing as a team dominating for a half, and then collapsing. The season has been about them not being very good, start to finish. If they want to blame chemistry, focus or coaching, that’s their right, but the real reason might be as simple as they lack talent.
Time for LAL to rebuild. LBJ to CLE. AD to POR. Westbrook goes anywhere for awful contracts w/ draft picks.