LeBron James takes knee to groin from Jason Smith (video)

LeBron James could have sat out on Saturday night with an eye injury, and now he probably wishes he had.

Amid the controversy over players resting when otherwise healthy, LeBron James surfaced as a game-time decision for Saturday night against the Washington Wizards with a scratched right cornea. But he suited up, wearing protective goggles to start the game, as the Cavaliers cling to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

James made it through most of the game without incident, despite the Cavaliers losing to Washington 127-115. But before the insult of a 12-point home loss came another injury, and one James surely wanted to avoid.

Driving to the basket in the fourth quarter, James was challenged by Wizards’ big man Jason Smith. That’s a clear and obvious mismatch athletically, leaving aside the fact Smith is a white guy, but Smith inadvertently leveled the playing field, so to speak.

I don’t need to describe what happened to James in great detail, nor do I particularly want to, so I’ll let Twitter do it.

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James seemed to, eventually, be no worse for the wear after taking a shot to groin. But as the Cavaliers fall to just a half-game ahead of the Boston Celtics for the Eastern Conference lead, and the Wizards get to just 2.5 games back in third place with a very important head-to-head win, the blow James took looks like a perfect metaphor for he and his team right now.