The Los Angeles Lakers have been bit by the injury bug lately as on Saturday night against the L.A. Clippers they took the floor without three starters and a key bench player in Austin Reaves, Deandre Ayton, Rui Hachimura and Gabe Vincent.
To make matters worse, Luka Doncic was hobbling in the first half and then was ruled out at halftime due to a left leg contusion.
That left LeBron James as the only healthy starter for the Lakers and despite a valiant effort from him and the bench, the Clippers came away with an easy win at Intuit Dome.
It seems like some of these players should be back shortly, and it remains to be seen how much time Doncic will miss, if any at all.
In the meantime though, James stressed the need for others to step up in their absence and credited everyone for their effort against the Clippers, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“No matter what the circumstance is, it’s still next man up. We’re all professionals and we all gotta stay ready. Obviously very challenging circumstances for our ballclub tonight, but at the end of the day, we played extremely hard, we followed our keys. We just came up short.”
The Lakers had a chance to come back against the Clippers, but their poor 3-point shooting did them in. They shot a porous 6-of-38 from deep, which James chalked up to an off night for the team:
“We didn’t make shots. That happens throughout the course of the season. We had some great looks, we just didn’t make shots. We still gave ourselves a chance to be in the game with how well we defended, our competitive spirit, our competitive nature, and just playing hard.”
Things don’t get any easier for the Lakers moving forward, but James is not willing to use injuries as an excuse:
“Whatever the game presents itself, we gotta be ready for the challenge. It doesn’t matter. The worst thing about sports is injuries. Not just basketball, but sports in general. Control the controllables with what we have out there. Whoever is in uniform, we have to go out and execute at the best pace we can and we have to be on a string and help each other out. That’s what it’s about.”
The good news is that James turned in his best performance of the season despite the loss, finishing with a game-high 36 points on 15-of-28 shooting with four rebounds and three assists. He seems to be finding more of a rhythm with each game after a delayed start to the season because of sciatica.
If Doncic and the other starters are forced to miss more games, that is the version of James the Lakers will need in order to compete.
LeBron James avoided injury
James recently had an injury scare of his own as he bumped knees in the Lakers’ recent win over the Utah Jazz. He was able to finish the game and suited up against the Clippers though, admitting he dodged a bullet.
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