The Los Angeles Lakers had a potential disaster on their hands when LeBron James was forced to leave the team's Christmas Day game against the Golden State Warriors.
The Lakers announced on Wednesday that James suffered a strained left groin and is being listed as day-to-day. Now, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst, the team is expecting James to miss "several games" as he recovers from the injury.
James suffered the groin strain early in the third quarter of Tuesday's game when he went to back down Draymond Green and his foot slipped out from under him. While LeBron did stay in the game until a timeout occurred, he definitely appeared to be in significant pain.
Wojnarowski and Windhorst also are reporting that there's no indication of what the timeline will look like for James to return to the court. The Lakers superstar has never had to deal with a groin injury during his previous 15 NBA seasons and is expected to take his time and not rush back and re-aggravate it.
"Obviously, we want him back soon as possible," head coach Luke Walton said after Tuesday's game. "But we also will be very cautious when we bring him back."
When the Lakers take on the Sacramento Kings on Thursday (10 p.m. ET -- Watch on FuboTV with the NBA League Pass extension), it'll mark the first game that James will miss this season, and after he played in every single game throughout the 2017-18 season, which includes the regular season and playoffs.
Prior to the injury, James was averaging 27.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 7.1 assists in addition to shooting nearly 36 percent from beyond the arc.