NBA superstar James expected to miss one-to-two weeks with groin strain
The Lakers can breathe a sigh of relief with James' injured groin only expected to side-line him for a week or two.
LeBron James has been diagnosed with a groin strain, but the good news for the Los Angeles Lakers is the injury is only expected to side-line the superstar a week or two.
James injured his groin late in Saturday's 111-101 loss to the Boston Celtics, and Shams Charania of ESPN reported on Sunday that injury is expected to keep him out one-to-two weeks.
There were earlier reports that the injury would side-line the 40-year-old several weeks.
The injury will keep James out for this week's road games against the Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets and a home contest against the Phoenix Suns, with a possible return for the 21-time NBA All-Star next Monday against the visiting San Antonio Spurs.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is expected to miss at least 1-to-2 weeks with a groin strain, sources tell ESPN. James will wait for the groin injury to calm down over the next 24 hours and receive another evaluation. pic.twitter.com/17mWxsaXN3
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 9, 2025
James exited Saturday's game with 6:44 to play, walking gingerly to the locker room with the help of team trainers.
After the game, he said he immediately thought of a groin injury he sustained on Christmas Day in 2018 that forced him to miss 17 games. But he then acknowledged that this injury wasn't as severe.
"Not much concern," James said of the injury. "Obviously, I'm day-to-day. I'll look at it each day and see if it gets better, and take the proper measures to see what I need to do moving forward."
Saturday's loss snapped a season-high eight-game winning streak for the Lakers.
Despite the setback, Los Angeles is still an NBA-best 18-4 since January 21, and entered play Sunday with a five-game lead over the second-place Golden State Warriors atop the Pacific Division.