LeBron James groin strain injury, explained

Let’s take a deeper dive into the groin injury that knocked LeBron James out of the Celtics game and will keep him out for multiple weeks.

Late in Saturday’s contest against the Celtics, Lakers superstar LeBron James checked himself out of the game in the midst of a furious rally that ultimately came up short while grabbing at the inner thigh of his left leg.

On the sidelines, he went through a few different squat variations to test if he could play and then, after going to the locker room, had further tests done by his long-time trusted trainer Mike Mancias. Ultimately, James was ruled out for the rest of the game.

After the game, LeBron said the injury occurred in the fourth quarter when he drove on Jaylen Brown, pivoted multiple times off pump fakes and finished off left hand off glass.

The injury was initially described as a groin strain and LeBron has been ruled out for Monday’s matchup vs the Brooklyn Nets. Currently, the reported expectation is for him to miss 1-2 weeks of action.

Let’s take a closer look at the injury.

Firstly, a groin strain is the typical colloquialism for injury to an adductor muscle which consists of a group of muscles.

The adductor longus is the most commonly injured of the group. It’s a muscle group that is used in the majority of basketball activities, including running, jumping, cutting, moving side to side and pivoting.

Based on there being nothing overt that caused the injury — meaning a clear movement or slip — I initially believed this was a minor injury. James further reinforced that in his post-game comments where he said it wasn’t a “major concern” and he would take it day by day and follow the protocol laid out by Mancias.

LeBron being ruled out for 1-2 weeks would align with a Grade 1 mild strain.

This is an area that James has dealt with multiple times during his Lakers tenure. He first injured it against the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day 2018 and missed the next six weeks.

With that injury, LeBron said he heard an audible “pop” and Charania further reported that wasn’t the case this time.

More recently, LeBron dealt with it in 2022 when he felt it during a Clippers game. He ended up missing five games at that time but was able to come back very effectively. This example is a much closer reference point than the incident in 2018.

All in all, James seemed to have avoided serious injury, but it’s also not surprising for this to occur. He’s been playing at an MVP level over the past nearly two months, is part of the group making up for the loss of Anthony Davis defensively, and more recently has had to make up for injuries to key guys like Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura. There’s been very high exertion and demand on the body, which can lead to overload.

No athlete understands his or her body better than LeBron James and he will do everything it takes to get back from this as quickly as he can without endangering the rest of the season.

In the meantime, it’s next man up for the rest of the roster and collectively picking up the load for their superstar. Coach JJ Redick and staff will have the team prepared to do just that.

Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, and runs his own in-person and online sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA and combines his movement expertise and fitness training background to rehab & train elite athletes.

He also works at a hospital — giving him experience with patients in the immediate healthcare setting and neurological patients (post stroke, post brain injury) — and has been practicing for over 5 years. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC), has a background in youth basketball coaching and analyzes the Lakers from a medical and skills perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and on his own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance, on Instagram, and on his weekly Substack 3CB Quick HIITS