The Lakers’ midseason resurgence injected new life into the NBA season, with TV viewership and fan engagement seeing considerable upticks in latest weeks.
That is why LeBron James’ groin harm, which is predicted to maintain the 40-year-old out for multiple weeks, comes on the worst attainable time for the league. With out James, the Lakers are unlikely to resemble the group that owns the third-best record (22-8) in 2025 — a extreme blow to the storylines shaping the season’s closing month.
The Lakers are slated to play four nationally televised games over the following 9 days, together with two contests apiece towards the Nuggets and Bucks. The video games towards Denver are notably important for the reason that two groups are locked in a good battle for the second seed within the West. Suffice it to say that curiosity in these video games has waned resulting from James’ harm.
It is usually mentioned the NBA is in a more healthy place when the Lakers are related, which they have been this season as a .645 group. Nonetheless, Los Angeles may realistically fall to the sixth seed whereas ready for James to return. The second-seeded Lakers (40-22) personal only a five-game lead over the sixth-seeded Warriors (36-28) and seventh-seeded Timberwolves (37-29), each of whom have a much easier strength of schedule the remainder of the way in which.
If JJ Redick’s males aren’t cautious, they may lose loads of floor within the standings, which might be unhealthy information for the NBA’s key stakeholders. The thought of the Lakers coming into the play-in event and presumably lacking the playoffs will likely be a devastating blow to the league.
It isn’t simply the Lakers who want James again as quickly as attainable. The NBA and its tv companions higher hope his groin harm is not as extreme because the one in 2018-19, which stored him out for 17 video games. The Lakers have solely 20 video games left, and each counts.
