On Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Lakers opened the new NBA season by losing to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Although LeBron James appeared to tweak his ankle at one point, he gave an optimistic update on the injury when he spoke after the game.
LeBron on tweaking his ankle: “I turned it pretty good, but I don’t think it’s going to stop me from playing on Friday.”
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) December 23, 2020
The Lakers lost, 116-109, largely due to deficiencies at the defensive end and in their 3-point shooting, as well as too many turnovers.
James did not play particularly well, as he shot just 7-of-17 from the field and had four turnovers.
As a whole, the Lakers looked out of rhythm, and some of it may have to do with the fact the James and fellow superstar Anthony Davis only played in two of the squad’s four preseason games.
With very little time separating the last game of last season’s NBA Finals from the start of training camp this month, most agree that James will need some sort of load management.
The Lakers also lost last season’s opener to the Clippers, so perhaps the team playing well is only a matter of James getting healthy and back into the swing of things with his teammates.
