LeBron James recently suffered a high-caliber ankle sprain from Solomon Hill who fell on James while both were diving for a loose ball. Though Hill was not injured, James was not as lucky. The Lakers star left the court to get his injury checked out and found out he suffered a high-caliber ankle sprain, which is when the tibia and fibula experience too much force and split apart. LeBron’s injury put the Los Angeles Lakers in a tough situation with the injury list at three people including three time NBA all star Marc Gasol and two time NBA All-Defensive First Team Anthony Davis. With LeBron James being added to this list, the team is hoping all of them can make a full recovery by the time playoffs come around, which begin in May. According to the New York Post, “The Lakers are going to win games without James for at least a month.” James’ injury is expected to take about four to six weeks to heal. While this may be just another injury for the franchise to endure, it will assuredly be a huge relief when LeBron James returns.

To put the seriousness of this injury into perspective, Lebron’s teams have performed much worse when he does not play. According to Fadeaway World, between 2003 and 2021 partway through his current injury, the teams he has played for have played a total of 120 games without him. However, they have managed to win just 41 and lost 79 of those. Lebron’s impact on the court is immense and a large part of why this injury is so significant.

At the time of the injury, the Lakers had a record of 28-14 and sat 3rd in the West. Unsurprisingly, since his injury, the Lakers have won less than half of their games and slipped to 7th in the West. In one of the most competitive years the Western Conference has had in recent years, it makes sense why a difference in two seeds means so much to the Lakers. As the Lakers likely look to the Play-In Tournament, their biggest hopes are that their stars Lebron James and Anthony Davis are as close to 100 percent as possible. That would give them a chance to not only make it past the 1st round, but possibly compete for a championship in this tough season.