Injury news is going from bad to worse for the Los Angeles Lakers. Not only is LeBron James out for a number of weeks with a foot injury, but Anthony Davis will also miss Wednesday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Davis will miss the game due to a stress injury in his right foot. Davis missed a large stint of games earlier this season due to a foot injury.
D’Angelo Russell will also miss the game with a right ankle sprain.
With James, Davis and Russell all missing Wednesday’s game, the Lakers will essentially be without their three best players. It’s obviously the opposite situation that the Lakers were hoping for.
The team’s season hangs in the balance, and it needs to start making up ground in the standings if it wants a realistic shot of advancing to the postseason.
Right now, the Lakers are sitting at the No. 12 seed. They’re just a half-game ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder and one game back from the New Orleans Pelicans for the No. 10 seed.
As NBA fans know quite well, the No. 10 seed is the final seed that advances into the play-in tournament, which gives teams a shot at making the playoffs.
If the Lakers want to avoid the play-in games and get into the playoffs directly, they’ll have to climb all the way up to the No. 6 seed.
That seemed like a real possibility just a few days ago before James went down with his injury. Now, the chances of that seem to be dwindling with each passing day.
It’s been a really tough season for the Lakers thus far, and they have never really seemed to find their footing and create the kind of success and momentum needed to be considered serious contenders.
The sad truth is that a disappointing end to the season seems like a very real possibility for the Lakers and their fans. Hopefully, Davis and Russell can return to the lineup really soon so that they can help the team weather the storm as James recovers.
