In the second quarter of the Lakers' loss to the Pelicans, LeBron James suffered a 90-degree sprain of his left ankle while scrambling for rebounds, although he insisted on playing with injuries but was obviously weak in moving, and the 2-of-8 + 3-of-3 in the final quarter was enough to show that the ankle had a great impact on him.
He also said after the game: "It's bad, I stepped on Hayes's foot and I obviously felt pain, but because it was an important game I persevered, if it wasn't an important game I probably wouldn't have continued to play." ”
From the replay, James's left ankle is indeed showing a 90-degree twist, such an injury many athletes directly returned to the locker room, remember anthony Davis once had a 90-degree sprain directly rested for a few months, but LeBron is not an ordinary person, he finally scored 39 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 block, shooting more than 53%.
Sports medicine specialist Evan Jeffries said: "James sprained his left ankle in tonight's game, depending on the degree, the treatment regimen and time are different. First-degree sprains: 7-10 days; second-degree sprains 3-6 weeks; third-degree sprains for several months. It is not known how many levels of sprain James has, nor does it know whether he will be able to continue playing in the next game.
He also said that for LeBron the left ankle is not a big problem, the most difficult problem is the left knee position. If James is going to play Tuesday against the Lone Rangers, he needs to control the swelling — keep his ankles flexible — treat them around the clock.
James has been affected by the swelling of the left knee this season, before the Pelicans he rested for 6 days to recover the swelling and soreness of the knee, did not expect the same side of the ankle to sprain again, which has a very significant impact on LeBron, and the pressure on his right foot will be too great.
At present, the Lakers have fallen behind the Pelicans by 0.5 wins, only one win ahead of the 11th Spurs in the West, the Pelicans and the Spurs have three weak team opponents in the next eight games, and the Lakers have only one weak team in the next eight opponents, the difficulty of the Lakers schedule is great, once James can not play in these 8 games, then the Lakers' first round of the playoffs are difficult to guarantee, after all, James is averaging 30.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.31 steals 1.07 blocks, shooting 52.3% of the time. Leader with a three-point shooting percentage of 35.9 percent.
Text/Yan Xiaobai