LeBron James missed 17 games in January with his groin injury, as well as an additional game last Saturday against the Golden State Warriors for “load management.”
But, with ridiculous shots like this one from Tuesday night's game against the Indiana Pacers, it's safe to say that the Los Angeles Lakers are glad to have James back.
Sheeeesh LeBron pic.twitter.com/VgGoXQfKBg
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) February 6, 2019
The Lakers went 6-11 during James' absence and currently hold the tenth seed in the Western Conference. They sit a game and a half behind the Clippers for a playoff spot. But despite a 13-point effort from James (including the 32,000th of his career), they trailed the Pacers 69-46 at halftime on Tuesday.
The team has reportedly been very active ahead of Thursday's NBA Trade Deadline. With James' return, the Lakers are looking to make significant additions for a late-season push.
Most notably they had been involved in discussions for Pelicans superstar Anthony Davis. But according to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times, the Lakers “have pulled out of conversations…because of the Pelicans’ ‘outrageous' trade requests.”
When asked about the Davis trade rumors, James told Turner:
“I kind of tend not to play much fantasy basketball, that’s how I’ve always been. If something were to occur with our team, whether it’s him or it’s somebody else throughout the trade deadline, we’ll approach it then. But right now this is the group that we have and we’re missing a key point of our team right now with [Ball] being out, so we have to win ballgames.”
James, 34, was averaging 27.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and 7.2 assists entering Tuesday's game.
The Lakers will continue to monitor his workload in the coming weeks as his health is essential to the success of the team.
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