The Los Angeles Lakers have been bit by the injury bug lately, most notably LeBron James who suffered a left groin strain in the recent loss to the Boston Celtics.
James did not seem concerned when talking about the injury after the game and initial reports indicated he would miss a week or two. The Lakers will still be cautious though and make sure the 22nd-year star is 100% before returning.
Because of that, James has left the Lakers’ current road trip and returned to L.A. to continue his rehab, which is going well according to Shams Charania of ESPN:
Lakers' LeBron James has returned to Los Angeles, per medical recommendation, as he continues to progress well from a groin strain with the team finishing road trip Thursday in Milwaukee and Friday in Denver, league sources tell ESPN.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 12, 2025
It’s good to see that James is making progress and considering the Lakers’ road trip only has a couple of days left, it makes sense for him to return home where he can get better treatment.
The Lakers are currently in a rough stretch of their schedule in terms of both quantity and quality of games, so the hope is they will get James and other injured players back as soon as possible to avoid falling too far down the standings in a stacked Western Conference.
Rich Paul won’t put timetable on LeBron James’ injury
While LeBron James is progressing well and hopes to be back soon, his agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports will not put a timetable on the 40-year-old’s return to the Lakers lineup.
“I think you have to manage it,” Paul said. 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… 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.”
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