While there was plenty to be happy about for the Los Angeles Lakers following their dominant victory over the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day, the big story coming was the injury to star LeBron James.
In the third quarter of the contest, James slipped while trying to corral a loose ball and immediately went to the ground. James was unable to return to the game and afterwards said that he felt a pop, but initial reports were that the groin was still intact, pending an MRI.
While James is dealing with a strained groin, the results of his MRI were encouraging but he will miss some games, per Shams Charania of Yahoo! Sports:
MRI returned clean on the four-time NBA MVP LeBron James, league sources said. https://t.co/yphdr6toV3
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 26, 2018
According to Tania Ganguli of the L.A. Times, James essentially will be considered day-to-day with his groin strain:
It's unclear whether or not James will make the trip with his team to Sacramento, though he is likely to miss that game. The Lakers went back to LA last night after the game and will head back up north at 8 p.m. tonight. https://t.co/Vag2o8etVD
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) December 26, 2018
As results of his MRI began to trickle out, James himself expressed a sense of relief and thanks:
Dodged a bullet! Sheesh. ???????? to the almighty above! #BackInNoTime
— LeBron James (@KingJames) December 26, 2018
This is about the best possible news that the Lakers and James could have hoped for. Losing him for an extended period of time could be terrible for the team in the middle of an extremely tight Western Conference.
The Lakers are currently just 2.5 games out of first place but also only two games ahead of the ninth seed.
The worry with groin injuries is that they can linger around for a lengthy time and never quite heel completely if the player rushes back. The Lakers will likely take every precaution with James in hopes of not injuring the groin further and putting him out for even longer than what he would miss now.
But James has proven throughout his career that injuries don’t tend to affect him as much as others, as he pointed out.
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