The Los Angeles Lakers had unbelievably bad injury luck last week.
First, All-NBA and All-Star guard Luka Doncic, who is about to win his second career scoring title, suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain and will be “out indefinitely,” according to ESPN’s Shams Charania last Friday.
The dust on that news barely settled when the Lakers announced on Saturday that guard Austin Reaves had been diagnosed with a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury, which Charania reported is expected to sideline him for four to six weeks.
The Lakers responded by asking 41-year-old LeBron James to do what he’s accustomed to doing for two decades: Shoulder everything.
The Lakers’ (50-28) first game without Doncic and Reaves was against the Dallas Mavericks (25-53) on Sunday, and James had a message for fans sitting courtside.
The X (formerly Twitter) account @Shpillo_ posted a video showing James interacting with fans after a foul occurred in the game. “I can still do this [expletive], you know what I’m sayin’?” James said. “I can still do this [expletive]. I can still do this [expletive].”
While walking away, James turned around and, while smiling and laughing, added, “They put me on the shelf, you know?”
Against the Mavs, James went off for 30 points on 12-of-22 shooting from the field, plus 15 assists, nine rebounds, and one steal in 39 minutes. Los Angeles lost 134-128.
In his NBA-record 23rd season, James accepted being the Lakers’ third offensive option behind Doncic (33.5 points per game) and Reaves (23.3 points per game). Even so, James has displayed his usual athletic dominance — skying for thunderous dunks and chasedown blocks — averaging 20.8 points, 7.1 assists, and 6.1 rebounds across 57 games.
James has been ruled out for the Lakers’ game against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night for “left foot injury management.”
The Lakers fell out of the third seed in the Western Conference since losing Doncic and Reaves and now sit at No. 4 behind the Thunder (62-16), San Antonio Spurs (60-19), and Denver Nuggets (51-28), in that order.
Los Angeles has four regular-season games remaining before the NBA playoffs begin on April 18.
