It’s official – LeBron James will not suit up when the Los Angeles Lakers visit the Utah Jazz this upcoming Friday evening.
Due to the groin injury that LeBron James suffered in the Los Angeles Lakers’ Christmas Day bout against the Golden State Warriors, it was widely presumed that he’d still be unable to play in this upcoming Friday’s contest against the Utah Jazz. It was announced by several sources that he was set to be re-evaluated on the 11th, thus while there was a slim chance that he could go in Utah, it was highly unlikely.
Well, the news became official on Wednesday that when the Lakers come to visit Vivint Smart Home Arena at the end of the week, The King indeed will not be making the trip.
As you can see in the tweet below from former Salt Lake Tribune writer Kyle Goon, due to the fact that LeBron’s medical re-evaluation will take place on the same day as the Jazz game, he won’t even be travelling with the team to Utah.
This might have been inferred earlier, but Luke Walton just conformed that LeBron James is not traveling to Utah. He’s scheduled to have his medical re-evaluation Friday in LA.
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) January 9, 2019
The Lakers have struggled mightily in the absence of James as they’ve gone just 2-5 since he went down with the injury. Lest you think that LeBron’s absence will equate to an easy win for the Jazz, though, it’s important to remember that Utah is quite banged up themselves. Ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Orlando Magic, the Jazz had five players listed as out on the injury report–
Danté, Grayson, Thabo, Ricky & Tony are all OUT tonight against the Magic.
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) January 10, 2019
Of course, the absences of Ricky Rubio and Dante Exum are the two most impactful of the bunch as it leaves the Jazz severely thin at the point guard position, but in all having so many players out of action is damaging to the depth. Even against a lackluster LeBron-less Lakers squad, the Jazz will have to be on their A-game to come away victorious.
Jazz fans heading to the game will likely be disappointed that they won’t get to see LeBron James in action with the Lakers in town, but fortunately, assuming he’s healthy, he’ll be back for the third meeting of the season on March 27th. The additional good news is that his inability to play on Friday means that his losing streak in Salt Lake City will remain intact. James has lost seven straight bouts on Utah’s home court and it will remain that way regardless of Friday’s result.
It would be even more exciting to see that streak continue, but the attempt to make it eight straight losses for LeBron in Salt Lake will have to wait until late March. Until then, the Jazz will simply have to hope that they can weather their own injury storm and come away with a few key victories over beatable teams in the coming days, including against LA, as they aim to surge up the standings and get back in the playoff mix.
The Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers tip-off on Friday at 8:00 PM MT on ESPN.