LeBron James ‘not close’ to returning from injury; too early to be concerned?
A recent report suggests that LeBron James is not close to returning from injury. Is it time for the Los Angeles Lakers to be concerned?
There are just 12 games remaining in the regular season and there isn’t much time left for the Los Angeles Lakers to change the tune of their season. Perhaps most importantly, there isn’t much time left for LeBron James to make his expected return from injury.
As the Lakers continue to try to slowly move up the Western Conference standings, it appears that they’re going to have to wait a bit longer before LeBron could give this team the jolt in the right direction that they may need.
According to a recent report (ESPN’s Brian Windhorst), LeBron is “not close” to returning. He could still be weeks away and if true, that means LeBron’s return in the regular season is very much in jeopardy. And that also means the Lakers will likely have to finish the job of making the playoffs on their own.
The Los Angeles Lakers can still make the NBA Playoffs without LeBron James
Looking at the landscape in the Western Conference and the remaining schedule for the Lakers, it’s not insane to say that the team could still make the playoffs even if LeBron doesn’t return during the regular season. However, I don’t think you can argue with the fact that it’s impossible to expect the Lakers to make much noise if any if LeBron isn’t back for the postseason.
In fact, there’s not even a guarantee that they would be able to advance beyond the Play-In Tournament without LeBron. Still, I don’t think this is a time for the Lakers to panic. Not yet. At least not until LeBron gets reevaluated. And that’s expected to happen sometime next week I would assume.
Anthony Davis has played exceptionally well for the Lakers over the past couple of weeks without LeBron in the lineup. And if he can continue to play at this level, you would expect the Lakers to have just enough to sneak into the Play-In Tournament.
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The focus should be on getting LeBron healthy. Because if this team is going to have any hope of making any type of run in the postseason, he’s going to need to be healthy and in the lineup for the Lakers.