LeBron Upset After Kuzma Injury, 3-Time Champion Booed By Lakers Fans

The Los Angeles Lakers’ playoff hopes took a massive hit Monday night after they lost their third straight game against the Clippers at the Staples Center. It was their third game in four days, with their previous losses coming against the NBA’s best and worst teams, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns, respectively.

Luke Walton’s team are currently in the 10^th place in the Western Conference and they are now 5.5 games behind 8^th placed San Antonio Spurs and 6 games behind the Clippers, who are in the 7^th place. And their fixture list does not get any better going forward as they next face the West's second-placed team Denver Nuggets before welcoming long-time rivals Boston Celtics.

The Lakers’ fortunes were expected to improve following the arrival of LeBron James but the three-time NBA champion faces the prospect of missing the playoffs for the first time in 14 years. They were in fourth place in December before James’ groin injury that saw him miss 17 straight games, but he has been unable to arrest the slump since his return and was booed off the court following their loss to the Clippers.

It has not been just poor play from Walton’s team that has put them in this position, they have also been beset by multiple injuries to key players during the course of the campaign. Rajon Rondo, who hit a triple-double Monday, has missed big chunks of the season through injury, while Lonzo Ball has been out for the last seven weeks with an ankle sprain.

And the injury jinx continued Monday when Kyle Kuzma went down clutching his ankle through a non-contact injury. James was already frustrated after his team’s loss to their city rivals but was also upset for Kuzma, who has been impressive with an average of 18.8 points and 5.6 rebounds this season.

“It sucks not only for the ball club but for the individual himself,” James said after the loss, as quoted by the Express. “I know how much work Kuz puts into taking care of his body and just trying to be available to his team-mates. Seeing him roll his ankle on a non-contact was definitely tough.”

The Lakers were also without Brandon Ingram, Lance Stephenson and Tyson Chandler for the game against the Clippers and James revealed that he has never been part of a team that has suffered so many injuries to key players during the season.

“I haven’t been a part of a season with this amount of injuries to all our key guys,” James added. “Our big, big key guys. It’s just the way the season has been. We’ve had guys step up.”

“Josh [Hart] stepped up in his absence tonight and it was great to see him play well again. But for us, we kind of pride ourselves on our depth at the start of the season. Our first unit and our second unit are very good but our depth has dwindled over the course of the weeks because of our injuries.”

According to ESPN, the x-ray of Kuzma’s ankle injury that he sustained with just over six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, has returned negative. It remains unclear if he will be available for the game against the Nuggets on Wednesday.