The Los Angeles Lakers finally got back on track on Friday with a come-from-behind win over the Phoenix Suns, 122-119. They got important contributions from a number of role players, including Cam Reddish, who moved into the starting lineup and played an excellent game on both ends of the floor.
However, the victory came at somewhat of a cost. In the first quarter, LeBron James’ lower leg collided with Kevin Durant, and he had to come out of the game. He was in quite a bit of pain, but he returned for the second quarter and ended up with 32 points on 11-of-17 shooting, 11 rebounds and six assists.
The Lakers will host the rebuilding Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday, and James is listed as questionable for that contest. Meanwhile, Anthony Davis, who sat out Wednesday’s loss to the Houston Rockets, is probable due to the adductor strain he’s been dealing with since Monday.
Six of the Lakers’ next seven games will take place at Crypto.com Arena as their schedule starts to get easier after a challenging start to the season.
Although James played very well and led the Lakers to victory, he said his injured shin never really improved throughout the game (at 1:13).
“It never loosened up,” James said. “But I was driving and awkwardly, KD’s knee, at the force that I was going, went right into my shin, which pretty much just locked up right then and there. Shot down to my foot so I just tried to obviously keep my composure and make sure I was OK and tried to keep it stretched out as much as possible, tried to keep it as loose as possible so I could play the game and be effective. [It’s] pretty sore right now obviously because the adrenaline is calming down. I’ve iced it and all that stuff so now it’s pretty sore but that’s what happened on the play.”
The 38-year-old continues to play heavy minutes to start the season. He was on the court for 36 minutes against Phoenix, and overall he’s averaging 35.0 minutes a game, which is more than the team was planning on having him play.
