02 March 2023 , 21:55
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The Los Angeles Lakers are preparing to make a run at the post-season without megastar forward LeBron James, according to reports.
James has suffered a tendon injury in his right foot after falling awkwardly against the Dallas Mavericks, and was seen telling team-mates he heard his foot "pop" in scary scenes.
The NBA's all-time leading points scorer was able to play through the remainder of the game, but was subsequently ruled out indefinitely while tests were carried out on the 38-year-old. Now, however, the Lakers have learned James has suffered a right tendon injury and will miss at least three weeks of action.
The team will then re-evaluate James after the three weeks are up, raising fears he could miss the remainder of the regular season. The Lakers are currently fighting to get into the Play-Offs after going on a respectable run of wins, but are now back to square one.
The Lakers are now 2.5 games back from making the Play-Offs automatically, but are closer to making the play-in tournament in order to make the post-season.
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And according to ESPN's senior NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers are preparing for life without James heading into the post-season. Speaking to SportsCenter, Wojnarowski said: "Three weeks for a re-evaluation doesn't mean he's back in three weeks.
LeBron James has been sidelined for a minimum of three weeks"Now you're down another ten games in this window inside of them are the last ten games of the regular season, that ends in early-April. The Lakers are right now preparing for having to make their post-season run without LeBron James in this regular season.
"They probably don't have enough right now to make a run to 6th as Darvin Ham hoped they would, but they've certainly got enough from the 10th seed in the West in the play-in to hang around that with New Orleans, the Utah Jazz, and hope they can be in play-off contention when it's possible for LeBron James to come back.
"The Lakers, at 38-years-old, a player of LeBron James' stature, they've got to play the long game with this. They've got to make a decision at some point this season if he's not ready to return of the risk-reward of trying to rush him back in any way to get to play-in as a 9th seed or 10th seed. Certainly for now, the Lakers are preparing for certainly three weeks... certainly a month, without LeBron James."