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LeBron James to miss Lakers’ final 2 games with ankle injury
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LeBron James will miss the ultimate two video games of the Los Angeles Lakers’ season with a sprained left ankle, nearly definitely stopping him from successful his second NBA scoring title.
The Lakers made the announcement Friday earlier than they hosted the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder. Los Angeles’ disappointing season ends Sunday at Denver.
The 37-year-old James averaged 30.3 factors this season whereas taking part in in solely 56 video games, two shy of the minimal to qualify for the scoring title together with his full points-per-game common. The second-leading scorer in NBA historical past has performed in just one sport since spraining his ankle March 27, scoring 38 factors in a crushing house loss to New Orleans on April 1.
Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James sits on the bench in the course of the first half of the staff’s NBA basketball sport towards the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco, Thursday, April 7, 2022.
(AP Photograph/Jeff Chiu)
James is barely behind Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, who’s averaging 30.4 factors per sport in one of many closest scoring title races in NBA historical past. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo is third at 29.9 factors per sport.
James is a four-time league MVP with 4 championship rings, however he gained his solely scoring title again in 2008 with Cleveland. The 18-time All-Star was trying to turn into the oldest scoring champion in NBA historical past by surpassing Michael Jordan, who was 35 when he gained his last title.
James handed Karl Malone for second place on the NBA’s profession scoring listing on March 19. With 37,062 factors, he trails solely Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his 38,387 factors for the highest spot in league historical past.
James additionally averaged 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists in his nineteenth season. He’ll make practically $44.5 million subsequent season within the last 12 months of his contract with the Lakers.
Though he has racked up spectacular stats whereas defying his age, James will miss the playoffs for under the second time since 2005 due to the Lakers’ main struggles within the second half of the season. He missed the postseason in his first season with the Lakers in 2018-19.
Los Angeles (31-49) has misplaced eight consecutive video games and is 10-30 since Jan. 7. Anthony Davis returned to the lineup April 1 after lacking six weeks with the most recent in his lengthy sequence of accidents over the previous two seasons after the Lakers gained their franchise’s seventeenth championship within the Florida bubble.