In his first at-length public comments about the knee injury he suffered in the Lakers’ season-ending loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves last month, LeBron James acknowledged he likely would have missed the remainder of the matchup if the Lakers were able to extend the best-of-seven series past five games.
The Lakers star suffered a Grade 2 medial collateral ligament sprain in his left knee during the fourth quarter of the Game 5 loss to the Timberwolves, an MRI from May 1 revealed.
James said he originally planned on getting the MRI on May 2 if his knee didn’t feel better compared to the night of April 30, but he couldn’t wait that long after the pain he was experiencing.
He added that the sprained MCL is his first significant knee injury.
“I have some time to get it right and get back to full strength as far as I need,” James during an episode of the “Mind The Game” podcast that he co-hosts with NBA legend Steve Nash that was released Thursday. “This is Wednesday night after the game: I said, ‘If I wake up Thursday morning and it didn’t feel any better, then Friday morning, let’s get an MRI.’
“Well, when I woke up Thursday morning and tried to get out of bed, I was like, holy [expletive]. And I called Doc right away. I said, ‘I can’t wait till Friday. I need to go [on Thursday].”
James suffered the knee injury during a collision with Timberwolves guard Donte DiVincenzo during the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the Western Conference first-round series.
After Rudy Gobert grabbed an offensive rebound following a DiVincenzo miss on a 3-point attempt, James and DiVincenzo collided as the Minnesota guard was cutting into the paint and James was attempting to run out to Timberwolves forward Julius Randle, who was waiting above the 3-point arc for a kick-out pass from Gobert.
James fell to the floor in the paint, with DiVincenzo being assessed for an offensive foul, before momentarily lying on the court and briefly subbing out with the Lakers trailing 84-82 with 8:39 left.
“I knew as soon as when the impact happened with me and DiVincenzo, I felt it right away,” James said. “My knee locked up and that’s why I kind of stayed on the ground for quite a minute to see if the knee will kind of release a little bit. But I knew right then and there was a pain that I hadn’t felt before.”
The 40-year-old four-time MVP subbed back into the game one minute later after being checked out by Mike Mancias, his longtime athletic trainer and the Lakers’ athletic performance liaison.
James finished Game 5 with 22 points (on 9-of-21 shooting), seven rebounds, six assists and a pair of steals in 40 minutes.
He had five points (2 for 6), one rebound and one assist after subbing back in, including making a 3-pointer that cut the Lakers’ deficit to 93-91 with 3:08 remaining, but the Timberwolves outscored the Lakers 6-2 in the final 1½ minutes to pull out the series-clinching victory.
“My knee bent inward and that’s the MCL injury that I had,” James said. “The docs told me I have four to six weeks now. Obviously, I wish I was still going. But unfortunately, even if we would have won Game 5 at home, I would have probably missed [Game 6 and 7], and even further.”
James has played in a league-record 292 playoff games without missing a game because of an injury.