Report: LeBron James had been playing through his injury since January to keep Lakers afloat in standings

The Los Angeles Lakers’ season now hangs in the balance, as superstar LeBron James is set to miss some time with the right foot injury he suffered on Sunday against the Dallas Mavericks.

NBA insider Shams Charania offered a more detailed update about the matter on Tuesday, saying that the four-time MVP will likely miss at least two or three weeks. He also said that James suffered the injury sometime in January and had been playing through it due to the Lakers not having the luxury of allowing him to rest.

“The interesting part here is I’m told that he initially hurt that right foot in January,” said Charania. “He was faced with a decision at that point to shut it down for an amount of time or keep playing on it. He decided because of where the Lakers were in January…he decided to keep playing on it.”

Should James be out for just two weeks, he would be out until March 14. That would leave him to miss the team’s next eight games.

If he were to miss three weeks, that would knock him out until March 21. Missing that much time would force him to miss the Lakers’ next 11 games.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the four-time champion’s right foot is expected to be reassessed in two weeks, though his return is expected to come after that.

It seems like the Lakers will use that checkpoint to see where they are in the standings and determine whether or not to bring James back.

Los Angeles has plenty of important games coming up. Three of its next four opponents are fighting for play-in tournament spots as well. The Lakers are set to face off against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday and Golden State Warriors on Sunday.

Those three games are arguably the most important of the entire season. The Lakers currently sit in 12th place in the Western Conference with a 29-32 record. They’re only a half-game back from the New Orleans Pelicans in the No. 10 spot and 2.5 games back of the Mavericks in sixth place.

The three-game winning streak L.A. is currently on has seemingly rejuvenated the fan base and organization. Plenty of people believe the roster now has what it takes to make it to the postseason.

James’ injury certainly doesn’t help at all, and it’ll now be up to players like Anthony Davis, D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura to pick up the slack.

Reportedly, the Lakers’ “dream scenario” is to land the sixth seed and face the Sacramento Kings in the first round of the playoffs. Only time will tell if that dream comes to fruition.