The Los Angeles Lakers are facing a tough stretch in the coming days, during which they will have three sets of back-to-back games in a span of just eight days. Two of those six games will be against the Denver Nuggets, a team the Lakers have had lots of trouble defeating over the last two years.
It seems very likely and possibly certain that LeBron James will miss all six of those games due to the groin strain he suffered on Saturday against the Boston Celtics. Although the Lakers have now lost two contests in a row, they will almost certainly not rush him back.
Rich Paul, James’ agent, said during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” that he won’t put a timetable on James’ return, although an initial report indicated that the superstar is expected to miss at least a week or two of action (h/t Lakers Nation).
“I think you have to manage it. Obviously you see the reports that are out there and you have to pay attention to LeBron in terms of his postgame interview. He knows his body better than anybody. So we kind of have to follow him there. But look, he’s played a lot of basketball. All of these guys, coming off the Olympics, they’re playing across our league. So there’s been a lot of basketball played. For the older guys that have this type of injury, you have to manage it properly. Unfortunately, AD (Anthony Davis) had the same thing. A little bit different, and [LeBron] even mentioned that as soon as he did it, the second thing he thought about was that. So you have to manage it with grace. Obviously the Lakers have a tough schedule coming up, I think they have six games in eight nights or something like that and they play some pretty top-heavy teams, they have the No. 6 most-difficult schedule to finish the season out. It’s tough. Look, they have a lot of work to do regardless of whether he was there or not just with the roster. But those guys have been playing an unbelievable brand of basketball and JJ has those guys prepared. They lost the other night by not being prepared, I didn’t think they executed well on either side of the floor and they were not able to beat the Nets last night, but that comes from I think in some cases not respecting your opponent. This is still the NBA and anybody can beat you on any given night. But you gotta handle it with grace. I won’t put a timetable on it, I’ll let LeBron decide what’s to be done there. He has a great trainer and medical staff with the Lakers and Mike Mancias leads that for him. I’ll just be lockstep with those guys.”
The groin is a large muscle, so predicting how long it will take a groin strain to heal is tricky. On Christmas Day 2018, James suffered a similar injury that kept him out for about five weeks, even though an MRI on the ailment reportedly came back clean.
The Lakers currently sit in third place in the Western Conference with a 40-23 record, but they’re just one game ahead of the fifth-place Houston Rockets. Just one or two more inexcusable losses could result in them possibly finishing fifth and not having home-court advantage in any round of the playoffs.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Rich Paul on LeBron James’ recovery from his groin strain
