Within the lengthy, storied historical past of the Los Angeles Lakers’ rivalry with the Boston Celtics, there have been loads of L.A. losses harder for the Lakers to swallow than Saturday’s 111-101 setback.
However that doesn’t make the top of an eight-game successful streak, punctuated by the exit of LeBron James resulting from a groin damage, any simpler for Los Angeles.
ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported that “it’s too early to venture an correct timetable,” although he added {that a} supply advised James could possibly be dealing with a weeks-long absence.
By no means thoughts the rest of a four-game street swing that started with Saturday’s loss and sends the Lakers to face fellow Finals hopefuls Milwaukee and Denver; “weeks” at this juncture of the season may lengthen into the playoffs.
Whilst Luka Dončić has settled in and regained his MVP-level type since coming over in a commerce from Dallas, Los Angeles stays a workforce reliant on James as a lot as its newly acquired celebrity. Among the many championship contenders with slightly greater than a month till the postseason begins, the Lakers is likely to be essentially the most depending on two main superstars.
Earlier than James left Saturday’s recreation, that reliance was satirically evident—ironic in that, whereas Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown mixed for 71 Celtics factors, the play of Derrick White highlighted a sure X-factor Los Angeles might not constantly have in its present state.
White scored 10 factors, handed for seven assists, grabbed 5 rebounds, had a steal and a block, and completed with a game-high plus-17 plus-minus ranking. Los Angeles has an efficient third scoring possibility on the perimeter in Austin Reaves, however a do-everything spark plug could also be a key high quality lacking from this Lakers lineup.
In fact, the complementary items are irrelevant if James just isn’t at or close to his greatest bodily. And at 40 years outdated, it’s pure to marvel how rather more successfully James can proceed to rebound close to a pre-injury bodily peak.
James has largely been an ageless marvel into the latter phases of his profession. Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was on the shedding finish of a few of these aforementioned gut-wrenching losses to the Celtics—but additionally accountable for making Boston followers’ complexions flip as inexperienced as their workforce’s uniforms on loads of events—had been the earlier benchmark for longevity.
Whilst The Captain remained a key fixture on Lakers Finals runs within the late Eighties, although, Magic Johnson had clearly taken the reins because the workforce’s driving drive. Dončić is a star corresponding to Magic each in fashion and skill, however very a lot an equal to the senior James.
By no means was James’ Father Time-defying play extra evident than within the days main as much as this go to to Boston. Amid the Lakers’ successful streak, James turned the NBA’s first 50,000-point man. Then, in defeat on Saturday, he exited for the locker room one help shy of his 152nd profession triple-double: 22 factors, 14 rebounds and 9 assists.
In that regard, there’s a maybe eerie and positively unlucky parallel to attract with one other Lakers legend, Kobe Bryant. Bryant, nearing the top of his seventeenth season, was within the MVP race and third within the NBA in scoring when he dropped 34 factors in an April win over Golden State.
Bryant additionally ruptured his Achilles in that recreation, and the all-time main scorer in Lakers historical past was by no means the identical the remainder of his profession.
The excellent news in James’ case is that even the much less optimistic risk of a weeks-long absence, as ESPN advised, is considerably much less damaging long-term than an Achilles damage just like the one Bryant sustained.
The sobering a part of James’ damage—each for the Lakers and NBA followers generally—is that it’s a stark reminder the time now we have left to soak up arguably the best, and positively essentially the most enduring, profession in league historical past is restricted.
