LeBron James ‘fine’ after injury scare vs. Rockets

While he exited the game early against the Rockets on Friday, LeBron James appeared to have avoided injury.

Just about the only way things could have gone poorly for the Lakers on Friday is if one of their stars suffered an injury. So, when LeBron reached for a loose ball and appeared to tweak his groin, a lot of “worst-case scenario” thoughts likely raced through the minds of Lakers fans.

Fortunately, it appears that catastrophe was avoided.

While LeBron left before the midway point of the third quarter and did not return, that likely had as much to do with the Lakers being up 20 points throughout the near remainder of the game en route to a win as anything else.

And just to further ease those fears, head coach JJ Redick said postgame that LeBron was “fine” and hadn’t suffered or reaggravated any injury.

The best news for the Laker even if he did tweak the injury is that they have over a week off before their first playoff game next weekend. That will give LeBron and the rest of the Lakers a long window to rest up and heal before the postseason.

This is a very notable change from previous seasons when the Lakers had to play not only to the final game of the regular season — something they also won’t have to do this year — but also then take part in a play-in game just days later, cutting into their time off before the playoffs.

By taking care of business on Friday, the Lakers can rest all their important players on Sunday before the week off as well. And it couldn’t come at a better time.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.