LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers headed into Wednesday’s game against the division-rival Sacramento Kings knowing what a win over De’Aaron Fox and company would mean for the squad with the NBA playoffs around the corner.
However, despite a strong start by the team, which went up by 19 points, things fell apart in the second quarter. The Kings outscored the Lakers in the second quarter by 24 points, and that ultimately proved to be the difference and Sacramento never let up.
As if the Lakers losing in convincing fashion to the Kings at Crypto.com Arena wasn’t bad enough, James headed to the locker room with an apparent injury before the game concluded in the fourth quarter, which obviously raised some serious cause for concern.
After the loss to the Kings, the Lakers held their collective breath while waiting for an update on James’ status. Head coach Darvin Ham promised to provide that update when given the information. Ultimately, James admitted that it was his left ankle that was bothering him, but he said he’d be alright moving forward.
“I’ll be alright,” James said. “It was what I was dealing with before the break, after the break. Just managing it as best as I can. Played the whole third, sat a little bit to start the fourth. When I got back in, it was kind of just whatever. Something I need to deal with.”
James finished the game with a team-high 31 points to go along with 13 assists and five rebounds in 33 minutes on the basketball floor. Even though James claims to be fine, the ankle injury will continue to be monitored leading up to the team’s next game against the Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard-led Milwaukee Bucks on Friday in Los Angeles.
Although James has had a lot of injury issues ever since he joined the Lakers a few years ago, he’s been able to stay relatively healthy up to this point in the regular season. The four-time NBA champion has played in 55 games thus far during the 2023-24 campaign, which matches the total games he played in last season.
“Some games is better than others,” James said on dealing with his injured ankle, which has been ongoing for weeks. “I didn’t feel it at all versus OKC, and I didn’t feel it at all until the fourth quarter tonight. So each game is different.”
LeBron James speaks on what makes Kings tough
As for Sacramento, Mike Brown’s squad never turned back after being able to turn it on in the second quarter, with former Lakers guard Malik Monk playing out of his mind. Monk was doing whatever he wanted on the floor and got a lot of help from Fox, who finished the night with a game-high 44 points.
“Their tempo, their pace,” James said. “They made a sub, we made a sub. Malik Monk came in and made a big impact. Davion Mitchell made a big impact when he came in. They changed the game into a complete 180. That was the difference from one quarter to the next.”
As a result of the Lakers, the Lakers now fall to 34-30 on the season while falling back to the 10th spot in the Western Conference, with the Golden State Warriors moving up to ninth after beating the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night.
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