Lakers' Austin Reaves Reacts to Injury to LeBron James

Nov 8, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves (15) and forward LeBron James (23) on the court against the Philadelphia 76ers during the second half at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images | Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Lakers will be without their superstar forward, LeBron James, for the next week or two after he suffered a groin injury.

James suffered a groin injury in the fourth quarter of Saturday's game against the Boston Celtics. He missed the rest of the game. 

The Lakers will do their best to survive without arguably their best player. After the game, Lakers star guard Austin Reaves discussed James' injury and said others need to step up without the 40-year-old. 

“We’ve had many situations where a player deals with some type of injury or a trade or whatever it is, and we’ve done a really good job of bouncing back,” Austin Reaves said. “And I don’t expect anything else. It’s a next-man-up mentality. Not one person’s gonna do what LeBron does for us. But you can do it as a collective. And … hopefully, he gets back out on the court soon.”

ESPN's Shams Charnaia reported that James will be out for about a week or two. He also said James will receive another evaluation in the next 24 hours to see if the groin injury has calmed down. 

In addition, Charnaia also reported that James did not hear a pop in his groin like he did when he suffered the injury on Christmas Day 2018 against the Golden State Warriors. 

James said on record that the injury wasn't as severe as the one he suffered on Christmas in 2018 when he missed more than a month. James missed 17 games that season, and it bothered him for the rest of it. 

That doesn't appear to be the case for the four-time NBA MVP, which is an excellent sign for the Lakers. Still, they will be without him for some time and at the worst time possible as they have a grueling stretch in front of them. 

Not only is the schedule daunting, but so are the opponents. After Monday's game, the Lakers have three sets of back-to-back games against some of the top teams in the league, like the Milwaukee Bucks and the Denver Nuggets. 

Reaves is coming back from an injury of his own as he dealt with a right calf strain. He suffered the injury on Feb. 28 and missed the next two games for L.A.

The 26-year-old appears to be healthy, and L.A. hopes that is the case for the rest of the way. 

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