Lakers Star LeBron James Leaves Team After Concerning MRI

LeBron James missed his third straight game on Sunday with swelling in his left knee and departed early from the Los Angeles Lakers road trip to get expedited treatment.

It’s not good news for the Lakers, who have lost three in a row and sit at 24-27. The Lakers looked sharp for a half against the Hawks on Sunday but fell 129-121. Vogel said the team will be cautious with James moving forward.

“As long as the swelling is there, he’s going to be out and we’ll get him back as soon as we can,” Vogel told reporters on Sunday. “Just going to keep an eye on it day to day.”

Vogel previously said that the injury didn’t happen on a particular play but that James woke up with discomfort in his knee prior to facing the Sixers on Thursday.

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Vogel Thinking About Adjusting James’ Workload

James is averaging 29.1 points per game and a whopping 36.6 minutes per game — the most since his last year in Cleveland in 2017. A large load has been placed on James, especially during the month-plus that Anthony Davis was out.

“I think about it every day,” Vogel said of James’ workload. “We’re always mindful of the load that he’s carrying, in constant communication with him and the medical team. And in terms of what we do going forward with the knee and where he’s at, it’s really a heavy lean on the medical staff and [trainer] Mike Mancias and what they feel is best. It’s really not a head-coach thing as much as it is relying on the medical team.”

James said prior to the season that he didn’t want to have a limited workload, even heading into his 19th NBA season.

“I don’t play the game thinking about injuries,” James told reporters. “And I also feel worse when I play low minutes.”

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Lakers Haven’t Been Able to Find Rythm With Stars

The Lakers year has not gone as planned, rarely being able to build chemistry with their three stars — James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook — in the lineup. There have been some bright spots in players like Austin Reaves and Malik Monk, but much of the year has felt disjointed.

“I thought the last two games we played really well, we just fell short,” Vogel said after the loss to the Hawks. “We always feel like we have enough even [when] Bron — or in Charlotte, Bron and AD — are out. We showed we have enough to be right there at the end. We just need to make a couple more plays to get these W’s. We could have easily won these last two games, we’ve just got to make a few more plays.”

The Lakers certainly aren’t where anyone expected them to be at this point in the season, but going on a run after the All-Star break with a healthy roster would solve a lot of their issues.

“We just got to stay the course, man, and I think we got six more games before [the All-Star break],” Davis said. “It will be good for everybody to just kind of get away and then come back and we got to get rolling.”

The Lakers are at home for their next four games, albeit one of those is an “away” game against the Clippers.

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