It's been a rough going for the Los Angeles Lakers lately and the bad news continues.
According to ESPN's infallible Adrian Wojnarowski, Lakers superstar LeBron James is expected to miss the team's next two games against the Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trailblazers to rest his right ankle.
Lakers star LeBron James is expected to miss back-to back games on Thursday (Clippers) and Friday (Blazers) to rest his right ankle, sources tell ESPN. James will proceed cautiously with ankle injury as playoffs approach.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 4, 2021
The Lakers are currently 37-28 and sit fifth in the western conference standings coming off the heels of a victory over the Denver Nuggets, a game in which James didn't play.
There are only seven remaining games for the Lakers this season, giving them a very small margin of error, especially with James out, if they hope to avoid the play-in tournament that James recently spoke out against.
One of the games James will miss is a game against the Trailblazers, who are currently in the play-in tournament but are only one game behind the Lakers for the fifth seed.
The Lakers came into the season as a team prepared to defend their title. While it's not time to hit the panic button just yet, you may want to locate it, or at least pray that some better luck finds the 2020 NBA Champions and does so in a hurry.