The Los Angeles Lakers lost both of their games this weekend but neither Saturday’s loss to Atlanta nor Sunday’s loss to the Suns were their biggest defeat of the weekend. Saturday’s injury to LeBron James is the most difficult obstacle the Lakers have had to navigate all season long and it will be “several” weeks before they get past it.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania brought the news that many expected to hear about the 36-year old James, that he would be out “several” weeks to heal his ankle. Even being conservative, if several weeks is right, that’s around three weeks but it could extend to around six. Even if it’s three weeks, that’s around 12 games that James will miss. And that’s being generous. The Lakers must manage this while also dealing with Anthony Davis being out for a couple more weeks as well.
With 28 games remaining in the season, the Lakers are back in third place in the Western Conference after back-to-back losses. They were given a little breathing room by teams chasing them this weekend like Denver and Portland, who both suffered home losses. But with the Clippers only 1 and 1/2 games behind the Lakers and the Blazers only 2.5 games back, the Lakers could suddenly find themselves on the other side of the Western Conference playoff race.
