Lakers' LeBron James Day-to-Day with Groin Injury; MRI Showed Strained Adductor

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James is doubtful for Friday's game against the Sacramento Kings after suffering a strained adductor, coach Darvin Ham said Thursday.

James went down in the fourth quarter of Wednesday's loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. He had 30 points, eight rebounds and five assists in 30 minutes before exiting.

A bastion of health during his tenures in Cleveland and Miami, James has dealt with injuries consistently over the course of his Lakers career. He missed at least 25 games in three of his first four seasons amid a series of soft-tissue ailments.

This groin injury is not considered as severe as the torn groin that hampered him in the 2018-19 campaign.

"I didn't do anything extraneous on the play," James said. "Just when I landed, I felt a little spasm or strain in my groin. So immediately I had to come out after that on the next play down when I went to the free throw line."

The Lakers' season has been nothing short of a disaster thus far, with the team sitting at 2-9 and James starting to show noticeable signs of age. He's averaging 24.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game but he's shooting 45.4 percent from the floor (his worst since his rookie season) and getting to the line a career-low 4.8 times a night.

There's no real positive spin here. The Lakers have been bad with James on the floor, and they're probably going to be a disaster with him out of the lineup.

The onus will fall on the oft-injured Anthony Davis and the recently benched Russell Westbrook to pick up the offensive slack with James out of the lineup.

Should the Lakers decide to give James the next two games off to heal, he would have an eight-day break between games.