It was an eventful trade deadline for the Los Angeles Lakers, who brought in several useful players. But the day ended on a sour note as they were beat by the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Lakers put up a good fight against a Bucks team that has been on a roll and it was even more impressive to see them hang around despite being without LeBron James.
James is coming off a historic game in which he broke the all-time scoring record, but toward the end of the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, it looked like he was dealing with some sort of foot injury.
Luckily, Darvin Ham clarified before the Bucks game that James is simply dealing with some wear and tear, although he did get the foot looked at.
“Just us monitoring his foot and the issues there. He was able to get some pictures of it and we’re thankful that there’s not anything extensive, it’s just more of a wear and tear. The biggest thing for him is for us to be efficient with his availability as well as his minutes and all of that to try to give his body a chance whenever he can to recover.”
James has been playing heavy minutes in recent months as he tries to keep Los Angeles afloat, so Ham didn’t believe that the game against the Thunder was anything out of the ordinary.
“I just think that he was playing at a high level,” Ham said. “There were times that we played him more because we needed to, but that was by necessity, not us trying to give him opportunities to get extra points. Those games where he played high minutes, they were needed. And again, he’s playing at a level where it’s hard not to keep him on the floor. We were aware of the record, but we were aware with him of just trying to get wins and trying to secure that spot.”
With the Lakers currently in 13th place in the Western Conference, they have no more room for error if they hope to make the playoffs. Keeping James healthy is the key to making a run, but from this point forward the team might not have a choice but to keep riding the superstar. Fortunately, it sounds like it’s nothing serious which means fans should expect the King to return for their next game against the Golden State Warriors.
LeBron James knew he was going to break scoring record against Thunder
James needed 36 points against Oklahoma City to break the all-time scoring record and he just surpassed it by dropping 38 points in the loss. When asked after the game if he knew he would break it that night, James confirmed it and said he wanted to do it in front of his friends and family that were in town.
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