The Lakers congested April schedule includes games against the Boston Celtics and NBA-leading Utah Jazz at home. Photo by Tim Hart on Unsplash.
By Jeremy Gonzalez, co-sports editor
The Los Angeles Lakers will be facing a tough stretch of games over the next few weeks as superstar LeBron James suffered a high right ankle sprain, first reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
James suffered the injury during the first half of the team’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks on March 20 while rolling his ankle during a collision with Solomon Hill. After initially staying in the game, James exited less than a minute later and did not return.
James has put together an MVP-caliber season through 41 appearances, averaging 25.4 points, 7.9 assists and one steal over 33.9 minutes per game. Los Angeles (31-19) also remains without James’ co-star Anthony Davis who is dealing with a calf injury and tendinitis in his right leg. So how does the team change its approach now that their two best players are out for an extended period of time?
Lakers starting point guard Dennis Schroder said the approach drastically changes when James and Davis are not on the floor.
“I think how we played before with them two on the court, it’s totally opposite now, I think,” Schroder said after the team’s loss to the Phoenix Suns. “I think we got to move the ball, we got to play with more pace. On the defensive end, we got to be more scrappy. And, yeah, I mean everybody who is coming on the floor has got to be confident to knock down the shot or to impact the game on the defensive end.”
Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said the offense will likely be depending on Schroder more often to create plays for himself and his teammates while James and Davis remain sidelined with injuries.
“Obviously, Dennis Schroder is going to be the head of the snake with the ball in his hands the most, dictating some of the action,” Vogel said in the team’s postgame conference following the defeat to Phoenix. “But we’ve got a lot of veteran guys on this team that can lead and we encourage our guys to lead from every chair in the room.”
The absence of James for the next three to four weeks in a compacted schedule means the Lakers could drop from their current position in the Western Conference. The Denver Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers can leapfrog the Lakers in the standings if the Lakers continue their slump.
There’s also a possibility that Los Angeles drops even further and allows the Dallas Mavericks or San Antonio Spurs to surpass them, leaving the Lakers as the seventh or eighth seed in a competitive playoff picture in the West.
In 2018, James’ inaugural season in Los Angeles, he suffered a groin injury around Christmas that caused him to miss 17 games, the longest streak of consecutive missed games of his entire 16-year career. During that span, the Lakers lost 11 of the 17 games and dropped to ninth place in the West. A similar skid could occur with his current ankle sprain.
Vogel understands this will be a challenging period for the team and hopes the team can stay afloat without their two best players.
“I’m optimistic,” Vogel said. “It’s going to take a little time as we adjust. We have to figure out where the shots are coming from and what our new identity is going to look like, but we’re going to play within our system.”
The Lakers might not be in a bad position like they were in 2018 though because Davis could return to the lineup sometime in the next two weeks. The addition of free-agent center Andre Drummond will bring some much needed help as the Lakers’ experiment with Marc Gasol at center has not worked out as well as they hoped for.
Drummond’s arrival and Davis’ return could provide a spark for the team on both ends of the floor while the Lakers wait for the return of James.
“We’re encouraging (James) to take a mental break and recharge a little bit mentally, so when he comes back we’re into a stretch where we can make a playoff push and make some noise, obviously, going into the playoffs,” Vogel said.
