MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Given the heaping injury misfortune they’ve dealt with over the past few years, the Lakers have gotten used to the sight of their stars in street clothes on the sideline.
Still, even then it was disconcerting when LeBron James rolled into FedEx Forum toward the end of the first quarter Tuesday night, wearing a backward hat, a black leather jacket and an enormous walking boot on his right lower leg.
There’s been no official diagnosis as to what exactly is wrong with James’ right foot – in fact, Lakers officials said Tuesday night, he’s still being medically evaluated to see what his prognosis is. But whatever went wrong Sunday in Dallas, it’s not good, and the team is not preparing for him to return very soon.
“I know he loves to play, I know he wants to help the team, so it never crossed my mind that he’ll be out until he told me he’ll be out,” teammate Anthony Davis said. “So that’s when it kind of sunk in.”
Multiple media reports have cited that James is at least several weeks away from returning in a season that has only six weeks and 20 games remaining. While James has missed extended time with injuries in each of the last two seasons, it still can feel jarring when he can’t push through.
In retrospect, the Lakers were stunned that James was able to retie his right shoe and play the fourth quarter on his injured foot on Sunday. Ham said the medical staff would not have played him if he was in a position to make his injury worse, but also that the team was wary of sitting him too long lest his foot lock up on him against Dallas.
“He soldiered up,” Ham said. “That’s the only thing I can think of that comes immediately to my mind.”
Now the Lakers know, at the very least, they’ll have to play without James for the foreseeable future. Troy Brown Jr. started at forward in James’ place. But Ham was adamant that the Lakers’ goal of making the postseason – and hopefully avoiding a play-in spot by…
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