The successful pairing of superstars LeBron James and Luka Doncic is going on hold for at least a week and possibly longer.
James will be out Monday night with a left groin injury Monday night when the Los Angeles Lakers visit the Brooklyn Nets, who are on a seven-game losing streak.
James suffered a groin strain in Saturday night’s 111-101 road loss to the Boston Celtics and will miss his fifth game this season. He will sit out his first game since a 124-117 home win over the Indiana Pacers on Feb. 8 due to ankle soreness. In his absences this season, Los Angeles is 3-1.
The Lakers are 8-3 with Doncic and James in the lineup, and their time together was interrupted when James was injured while defending a layup by Jaylen Brown with 6:44 remaining in the fourth quarter. After struggling to get to the bench for a timeout, the four-time league MVP slowly walked back to the locker room with trainers.
While the Lakers did not officially announce a timeline after seeing their eight-game winning streak stopped, multiple reports stated James could be out for a week or two. That stretch includes Monday’s matchup along with road games against the Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets, before a five-game homestand, with the Bucks and Nuggets coming to Los Angeles.
“Obviously, to get injured at this time, those (groin) injuries are — I don’t want to say the worst, but they are tough to deal with,” Doncic said. “So, just take his time. And we got to have as a team a next-man-up mentality.”
Doncic will be the featured part of the Lakers’ offense, and the guard has averaged 24.7 points in 11 games since last month’s stunning trade from the Dallas Mavericks. Doncic scored at least 30 points for the third straight game and fifth time with the Lakers, posting 14 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter at Boston after Los Angeles trailed by as many as 22.
“It doesn’t matter who’s in the lineup, we have to play our game,” James said. “We’ve had guys in and out of the lineup the majority of the year. And we’ve had guys in and out of the lineup the last six weeks. Nothing changes.”
Meanwhile, the Nets are on their second seven-game losing streak this season. Brooklyn also dropped seven in a row Jan. 15-27, including a 102-101 road defeat against the Lakers on Jan. 17.
After allowing 97.8 points in a 7-2 stretch, the Nets are giving up 117.8 to match their longest skid under first-year coach Jordi Fernandez. Brooklyn blew a 22-point lead in a 121-119 home loss to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday and a 17-point edge in a 105-102 setback to the host Charlotte Hornets on Saturday.
Against Golden State, Brooklyn had a 20-point lead through the opening quarter before getting outscored 106-84 the rest of the way. At Charlotte, Brooklyn held a 17-point lead on a 3 by D’Angelo Russell in the final minute of the first half but got outscored 62-44 in the second half.
The Nets held a 14-point lead with seven minutes left Saturday, and Russell finished with 28 points but didn’t score the rest of the game as the Nets were outscored 22-5 and gave up the final 12 points.
“We had the lead and we were not responsible to finish the game,” Fernandez said. “You could tell how our energy and our engagement was up and down. That’s immature.”
–Field Level Media
