5 ways the Lakers can survive LeBron James’ groin injury

LeBron James went down with a left groin injury in the third quarter of the Lakers’ Christmas Day matchup against the Warriors. It was a non-contact injury as James attempted to post up Draymond Green in the paint, and he never returned to the game.

He said he “heard a pop” at the time of the injury, but Wednesday’s MRI came back clean. He’s listed as day-to-day and tweeted that he’ll be “back in no time.”

After the game, James told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that his muscle was still intact and he wouldn’t rule out playing again on Thursday. Still, the Lakers expect James to miss at least a few games, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Haynes.

This is a weird place for a James-led team, since he hasn’t missed a game since April 2017. But unlike in James’ two previous stops in Cleveland and Miami, there are real regular-season stakes if he’s forced to miss time. As of Dec. 26, the Lakers are as close to first place in the West as they are to 10th (2.5 games.).

Without a co-star, can the James-less Lakers survive and thrive, as they did in walloping the Warriors on Christmas? Here’s how:

When James left the floor in the third quarter, Rondo stepped right in. He finished with 15 points, 10 assists, and five rebounds, all while looking like the Rondo of old. He picked apart the Warriors defense, found open cutters and shooters, and breathed life into a gloomy final frame for L.A.

At the beginning of the season, it appeared Rondo would be an intruder on Lonzo Ball’s minutes. But if James misses extended time, there should be plenty of room for both to thrive.

Ingram is supposed to be the next-best scorer of the Lakers’ horde of 20-something first-round picks. He’s averaging 16 points per game, the same as last season, but doing so on nine percent worse three-point shooting, and with half the assists per game.

He’s plateauing, if not regressing, playing alongside James. In 569 minutes sharing the court with James, Ingram has a true shooting percentage under 50 while using 20.6 percent of LA’s possessions. The Lakers have only outscored opponents by 1.6 points per 100 possessions in that time.

But in 110 minutes without James on the floor, Ingram’s true shooting percentage jumps to more than 61 percent while using 27.5 percent of Lakers possessions. More surprisingly, the Lakers’ net rating actually jumps to +13.1 points per 100 possessions.

Those numbers provide some hope that Ingram can snap out of his season-long funk with James sidelined.

Zubac stole the show in the Warriors-Lakers game with JaVale McGee out due to pneumonia. He scored 18 points on 10 shots with 11 rebounds, and finished everything on the inside. He also did this:

It was Zubac’s third straight productive game filling in for McGee and Tyson Chandler, who returned from injury on Christmas. It’s asking a lot for Zubac to produce like he has consistently, but if he’s similarly efficient with his touches, maybe L.A. has a chance to make up for James’ lost offense.

With more shots to go around, L.A.’s backcourt shooters will need to step up. That means Hart (38 percent), Caldwell-Pope (35 percent), and/or Ball (31 percent) will have to take on some of the weight and stretch the floor. They all don’t need to be perfect all the time, but someone needs to show up every night.

Ha ha, ha — kidding.

I think?

James walked out of Oracle Arena on his own power. We have proof of that:

So clearly, this injury won’t be nearly as bad as it looked. After all, it’s hard to imagine James ever getting hurt seriously.

The Lakers better hope he’s back to 100 percent soon, because realistically, all of the aforementioned keys to success without him won’t happen every night. The blowout win over Golden State on Christmas offers reason for optimism, but let’s not get carried away. Los Angeles can’t survive for too long without James.