LeBron James exits against Clippers with groin injury, will be evaluated on Thursday

When it rains, it turns into an absolute monsoon of a torrential downpour.

Midway through the fourth quarter of a game that they would eventually lose, the Lakers watched LeBron James limp off the floor and not return against the Clippers. The team ruled him out due to left leg soreness, an injury that he’s been dealing with and one that has already forced him out of a game.

Watching the injury, though, it looked unfortunately reminiscent of the walk he made off the court in his first season in Los Angeles when he suffered a groin injury.

After the game, LeBron James confirmed it was his groin that he felt the injury in, though it wasn’t as painful as the one he suffered in 2018.

It goes without saying that the Lakers can very, very illy afford an injury to LeBron James at this point in the season. Wednesday’s loss dropped the team to 2-9 on the year and another early low point of the season.

Losing James at this point would almost feel like a nail in the coffin of the season. The Lakers are already facing a steep, steep uphill climb to get back into contention, and having James unavailable for any stretch of games would turn that hill into a sheer-face mountain.

This also could impact his chase of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the all-time scoring title. He was set to break the record this season based on his scoring pace, but the number of games he may miss could push that further back into the year.

All in all, it was about as worst-case scenario as the Lakers could have had on Wednesday, losing both the game and one of their stars to injury. At some point, things have to start turning around for this team...maybe.

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