LeBron James was seen limping as he left the American Airlines Center in Dallas following the Los Angeles Lakers’ win over the Mavericks. He appeared to injure his right foot during a layup attempt on Dwight Powell in the third quarter. After the contact, floor microphones for the broadcast picked up James remarking to the team’s bench that he “heard a pop.” James remained in the game until its conclusion. The Lakers won 111-108.
“It’s been better,” James said when asked about his foot afterward. “That’s for sure. But I definitely wasn’t going to go to the locker room and not finish the game out tonight. Just understood the importance of the game, and then with the momentum that we had, I felt like we could still win after being down. We’ll monitor it the next couple days, see how it feels and go from there.”
Lakers coach Darvin Ham said that James is “good” as of now but the team will be monitoring his foot. “He’s good,” he confirmed. “Our medical people are looking at him now. He’ll be reevaluated again in the morning. So once we get some type of official word tomorrow, we’ll go from there. But as of right now, he’s good.”
James finished with 26 points on 10-for-23 shooting, adding eight rebounds and three assists. He scored 11 of his points in the fourth quarter, after the injury occurred. For the victory, the Lakers overcame a 27-point deficit, the biggest comeback by any team this season. With the win, the team improves to 29-32 leaving them at 11th place in the Western Conference standings. They’re currently fighting for a spot in the playoff games as the season nears the final stretch. There’s reason for Lakers fans to be hopeful as their team has played notably better since acquiring D’Angelo Russell, who was absent for Sunday’s win in Dallas.
[Via]