The Los Angeles Lakers have been feeling great since the team acquired Luke Doncic from the Dallas Maverick at the trade deadline. In fact, they climbed their way to second place in the Western Conference. On Saturday night, NBA fans watched a potential Finals matchup between the Lakers and the Boston Celtics.
Despite a late comeback attempt, the Celtics picked up the 111-101 victory. The Lakers, who now fall to 40-22 on the season and saw their eight-game winning streak end, didn't have star LeBron James late in the game, as he was ruled out due to a groin injury. For Lakers fans, they were hoping that this could be just a one game thing.
But that might not be the case.
ESPN's Dave McMenamin says that it is too early to project a recovery timeline for James' left groin injury. But McMenamin says a source believes that the injury "will sideline James for a matter of weeks, not a matter of days."
It is too early to project an accurate timetable for how long LeBron James could miss because of his left groin injury, sources told ESPN. However one source said the initial thought is that it will sideline James for a matter of weeks, not a matter of days.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 9, 2025
Lakers' initial belief is LeBron James will be sidelined weeks with groin injury
Again, this isn't an official timeline for how long James could be sidelined for, but the intital prognosis isn't great.
This injury stings bad for the Lakers, as they had an aforementioned eight-game winning streak. But their schedule is only getting tougher. After taking on the Brooklyn Nets on Monday, the Lakers face the Denver Nuggets and Milwaukee Bucks twice each in the following six games. That's not ideal, especially with the Memphis Grizzlies and Houston Rockets not too far behind them in the Western Conference standings.
This season, James was averaging 25.1 points, 8.5 assists, and 8.1 rebounds while shooting 51.8 percent from the field through 57 games (before Saturday's game vs. the Celtics).
While yes, the Lakers can take solace in the fact that they still have Doncic, not having James in the lineup hurts them. For now, we wait to see just how long James could be sidelined for.