Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James exited Saturday's 111-101 loss to the Boston Celtics with a left groin injury, and his upcoming absence will leave a void for head coach JJ Redick to fill.
Reports on Sunday suggested that James' injury is minor, but he is expected to miss one-to-two weeks. Starting Monday against the Brooklyn Nets, the Lakers have nine NBA games in a two-week window, including a stretch of six games in eight days from March 13 to March 20.
James' son, 20-year-old rookie Bronny James, has only played in one game for the Lakers since Feb. 12. He has played in 18 of a possible 62 NBA games during his rookie season so far, making another eight appearances in the 2024-2025 regular season for the South Bay Lakers of the NBA G League.
All of a sudden, Redick is in need of bodies thanks to the status of the elder James, who is joined on the injury list for the Nets game on Monday by Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle soreness), Rui Hachimura (left patellar tendinopathy) and Maxi Kleber (right foot surgery recovery).
Luka Doncic (back soreness) and Jaxson Hayes (right knee contusion) are also listed as questionable.
However, the pile up on the trainer's table will not lead to Bronny's big break - at least not on Monday.
Lakers injury report for Monday in Brooklyn: pic.twitter.com/7umPQo7i0f
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 9, 2025
James will be with South Bay, which has a home game against Motor City Cruise the same day. The two teams also faced off on Saturday, when James recorded 16 points, five rebounds, six assists and one steal in a 121-103 win while on assignment.
The No. 55 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft has excelled at the G League level. In his previous seven appearances, he was averaging 21.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists per contest.
Though he will stay with South Bay on Monday, James may still have an opportunity to get more playing time with the NBA team during the upcoming flurry of games while his dad recovers from the groin injury.
After the Oklahoma City Thunder (53-11) beat the Denver Nuggets (41-23) on Sunday, Los Angeles (40-22) moved back up to the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference that they briefly lost hold of due to the loss to Boston.
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This story was originally published March 9, 2025 at 3:36 PM.