The Los Angeles Lakers were supposed to have a 2020-21 team that was arguably better than the 2019-20 team that won an NBA championship. Understanding that while not knowing what went wrong during the season, you’d be surprised to see the Lakers fall from 1st in the West last year to 7th this year. Of course, the crux of the Lakers’ problems this year can be attributed to the health of their two superstars as Anthony Davis and LeBron James both missed multiple months of this season with their injury timelines nearly overlapping.
LeBron James was the victim of a high ankle sprain earlier in the year that kept him out all the way until the past week or so. In the regular-season finale on Sunday that saw the Lakers beating the Pelicans, LeBron tweaked it late after coming down on it awkwardly when Nickeil Alexander-Walker challenged his layup attempt. As Mike Trudell of the Lakers reports, LeBron doesn’t see this as an issue although the play caused him to walk gingerly off the court. Frank Vogel reiterated this, saying he will be good to go for Wednesday’s play-in game against the Warriors.
LeBron on his ankle: "It was a tweak. I stepped on (Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s) foot after that last layup … but I'll be fine.”
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) May 17, 2021
Frank Vogel said LeBron is “good to go. No issues.”
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) May 17, 2021
LeBron leaves the game after rolling his ankle pic.twitter.com/zV1NfdagOx
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 17, 2021
LeBron also spoke about his journey back to the court following the injury he initially sustained March 20th against the Hawks. The player he’s talking about below is Solomon Hill, who took an ill-advised dive towards a loose ball that was right in the midst of LeBron’s legs (quote transcribed by Christian Rivas/Silver Screen & Roll):
“It’s been hard to tackle it,” James said. “I was playing some of the best basketball of my career before the injury and it wasn’t, like, a self-inflicted wound. It wasn’t something that I could control. It’s not like I wasn’t putting in the work and then my body failed me. I literally had a grown man diving at my leg for a loose ball and here’s the injury.”
Although he may not be 100%, LeBron is looking forward to the play-in (with the playoffs hopefully right after that).
LeBron on heading into the playoffs: "I look forward to the challenge. It's another challenge in the postseason and I'm looking forward to it."
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) May 17, 2021