His way Los Angeles Lakers to Playoffs it got even more complicated. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, it is expected that Lebron James will miss “several weeks” with a right leg injury sustained in Sunday’s return against the Dallas Mavericks.
Less than a week after James called what’s left of the Lakers’ schedule as “23 of the most important regular season games of my career”it looks like the NBA’s all-time leading scorer will watch most of the Lakers’ frontcourt stretch from the outside.
James’ injury comes at the most unfortunate time, when Los Angeles began taking its first steps with its new rotation. The Lakers had won four of their last five games since the market closed just one game out of the Play-In and 2.5 games out of a top six finish in the West.
With LeBron out indefinitely, who will bolster the Lakers on their way to the playoffs?
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How have the Lakers fared without LeBron James this season?
James has already missed 14 games this season.five of them due to an adductor strain in November and the rest due to persistent foot and ankle injuries or due to rest. No wonder the Lakers are 5-9 in those games.
The 38-year-old has defied time to this point in the season, with an average 29.5 points, 8.4 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game. His absence leaves a huge void in Los Angeles, which is now without its leading scorer and point guard indefinitely.
Although Darwin Ham’s men are a better defensive team with James on the pitch, the differences are not as drastic as they are on the attacking end.
When LeBron is on the floor, the Lakers have an offensive rating of 115.1, which ranks them in the NBA’s top 10. When they’re not close, their offensive rating drops to 107.2, which puts them last.
How will Los Angeles make up for James’ scoring and playmaking production during his absence? It all starts with Anthony Davis and the new additions.
Anthony Davis’ moment to shine
In November, when James was unable to play with an adductor, Anthony Davis had one of the best stretches we’ve seen from the eight-time All-Star in quite some time. Now, with James out of the game again, it’s no exaggeration to say that It’s up to Davis to save the Lakers’ season.
In nine games without his co-star this season, Davis is averaging 27.8 points, 15.9 rebounds, 2.2 blocks, 1.9 assists and 1.3 steals. With the exception of assists, the rest of the numbers are above averages for the entire season.
During the five games without James in November, Davis averaged 33.2 points, 17.4 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, 2.2 assists and 2.2 steals, taking LeBron’s place in a big way. He posted four straight games of at least 30 points and 15 rebounds, joining a short list of 12 Hall of Famers or future Hall of Famers to accomplish the feat.
37 points
21 REB
5 STL
5 BLKAnthony Davis was incredible tonight, posting his FOURTH straight game of 30+ points and 15+ rebounds.
Becomes only the second Laker in history to record 35+ PTS, 20+ REB and 5+ BLK in a game, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (5 times). pic.twitter.com/BFZULyfR81
—NBA (@NBA) November 23, 2022
The Lakers chose to do it all through Davisdrastically increasing his number of touches in the paint, touches after and total touches per game.
Expect to see the exact same strategy entered the court as Davis tries to handle most of LeBron’s scoring this time around.
If ever there was a time for Davis to step up and show he can lead a team to victory, it’s now.
Who else steps up without LeBron James?
The Lakers’ new additions at the transfer deadline they already made the managers look good in their first five games but now that depth is more valuable than ever.
Offensively, they should be a sum of parts to make up a difference of nearly 30 points and 10 assists per game.
D’Angelo Russell He is dealing with his own ankle injury, but will be vital for the Lakers when he returns. In the three healthy games he’s played with Los Angeles, he’s averaged 17.3 points and 5.7 assists, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see both numbers increase.
Until Russell is healthy, I hope Dennis Schroeder and Austin Reeves take on more game creation tasks.
About scoring, the shooter Malik Beasley He will continue to try to give Davis a hand. The 26-year-old has been up and down in his first five games as a Laker. In the two times he has scored more than 20 points, he has made 13 three-pointers with a 56.5% shooting percentage. In the three in which he has scored less than 10 points, he has made just 16.7% of his 3-pointers.
Rui Hachimura He should also get more playing time and more shots.
On defense, the Lakers won’t change much, since vanderbilt vasethe swiss army knife, will take on tougher duties (as he already did with a healthy James).
While it is true that Russell Westbrook would be the perfect player to take James’ spotLos Angeles now has enough quality rotation players to hold their own against an injury-sized blow from LeBron as they look to continue their playoff streak.
The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of the NBA or its organizations.
