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The Los Angeles Lakers continue on their upward trend having just beaten the Sacramento Kings 132-122 on Saturday night. Even more impressive, the Lakers were without their team leader, star forward LeBron James.<\/p>\n
James missed his third matchup of the season due to an illness. James\u2019 first two missed games were due to a foot injury, and since his return, the Lakers have won five of their last six games. The Lakers are now 18-13 and moved up a spot in the Western Conference to sit in a solid 5th place.<\/p>\n
Gabe Vincent took the starting role James\u2019 place, but only played seven scoreless minutes before being ruled out with an oblique injury.<\/p>\n
With players like Vincent going down, and critical players like Anthony Davis, Christian Wood, and Jaxson Hayes missing time on the floor resulting from injury, fans have a growing concern about a possible return from James.<\/p>\n
The 39-year-old phenom continues playing at an extremely high level, averaging 23.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 9.0 assists per game. In his last performance in the NBA Christmas Day matchup, James competed in another iconic Christmas showdown, and led his team to a victory scoring 31 points and dishing out 10 assists.<\/p>\n
Although fans may start feeling a bit concerned about James\u2019 illness, head coach J.J. Redick , seemingly putting any concerns to rest.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo concern, he\u2019s just a little bit under the weather,\u201d\u00a0Redick told\u00a0the media following Friday\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n
James was missing from Friday\u2019s practice, and he was listed as questionable on the injury report ahead of Saturday\u2019s matchup before officially being ruled out.<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves, who\u2019s been having a career\u2019s best season this year, spoke on playing without their team leader.<\/p>\n
\u201dIt\u2019s really just playing the game the right way, trusting the offense, the system we have,\u201d Reaves told the media following the matchup. \u201cIt\u2019s never fun to not have Bron. He creates so much chaos and security for us, but it\u2019s just a collective group. Everybody knows they have to step up and do something to for us to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Davis and Reaves stepped up massively in James\u2019 absence to complete a four game sweep in the Kings series this season. Davis finished with an impressive 36 points and 15 rebounds while Reaves contributed 26 points and a career best 16 assists. The Lakers were fortunate to have Davis return back from his injury that occurred on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Los Angeles Lakers continue on their upward trend having just beaten the Sacramento Kings 132-122 on Saturday night. Even more impressive, the Lakers were without their… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n