National Basketball Association

Are LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers doomed if Anthony Davis is out?

Updated May. 31, 2021 1:59 p.m. ET

The injury bug has struck these NBA playoffs yet again.

The Los Angeles Lakers are sweating the status of Anthony Davis, who exited Sunday's 100-92 loss to the Phoenix Suns because of a left groin strain late in the first half.

On Monday, the news broke that Davis will likely miss Tuesday's Game 5, and his status for the rest of the series is unclear, even though he is reportedly day-to-day with the injury.

With Davis out for Game 5 and potentially not at 100 percent for the remainder of the series, attention immediately turns to LeBron James, and the 36-year-old was all too aware that that was the case in his postgame news conference.

With the series tied 2-2 and shifting back to Phoenix for Game 5, there's little room for error.

"For me, it's putting our team in position to be successful," James said. "It starts with my approach. It starts with my accountability, trickles down to everybody else. So, you know, these shoulders are built for a reason. If it takes for me to put some more on top of it, then so be it. Win, lose or draw, I'm ready for the challenge."

In four games against the Suns so far, LeBron is averaging 21.8 points, 8.5 assists and 7.3 rebounds. His running mate, Davis, is also averaging 21.8 points per game, but his Game 4 was cut short.

In Games 2 and 3, Davis led all scorers with a pair of 34-point games. Unsurprisingly, those were both wins for the Lakers.

But besides Davis and James, the Lakers have just one player averaging double digits in points so far this series: Dennis Schröder.

Unfortunately for L.A. fans, Schröder's second-half performance in Game 4 didn't inspire much confidence that he could pick up AD's slack.

In just more than 20 minutes of second-half action, the 27-year-old guard went 1-for-6 from the field for three points, finishing 3-for-13 with a total of eight points in the game.

Dennis Schröder shot 23.1% from the field in Game 4 for the Lakers.

The story is similar for other Lakers who might have been expected to step up.

Kyle Kuzma went 2-for-6 in the second half for six points, and Montrezl Harrell didn't have an attempt in his four-plus minutes of action.

How daunting is a prospective Davis absence for the Lakers? Skip Bayless of "Undisputed" said he believes the series should still be under LeBron's control.

"Given that Mount Everest, Mount Olympus that GOAT James is on, according to LeShannon Sharpe, shouldn't he just take over Game 5 by himself?" Bayless asked. "Shouldn't he just come out and say, ‘OK, that’s enough. I've got this. I've got all of you'? … I still believe he is capable ⁠— and they are capable around him ⁠— of winning this game. But he's going to have to play much bigger and much more aggressively than he has so far."

Shannon Sharpe, or "LeShannon," as Bayless likes to tease, sees a need for LeBron to put the Lakers on his back and lug them through the rest of the series.

"LeBron knows now, those big shoulders that he talked about so much, they've got to be Atlas," Sharpe said. "He's going to have to carry the Lakers' world over the next three games."

However, ESPN's Seth Greenberg wasn't too keen on Los Angeles' chances of survival.

"If you take away Anthony Davis, you take away one of the top five players in the NBA," Greenberg said. "You take away an elite defender. His guys that he defends shoot 38% from the field, 25% from 3. … LeBron's done it before, but this team that he's doing it with and the team he's doing it against is a little bit different."

Say the Lakers snag two more wins and take down the Suns. What then?

Nick Wright of "First Things First" peered into his crystal ball and foresaw an exit against the Denver Nuggets, if they get past the Portland Trail Blazers.

If the Lakers were to draw the Blazers in the next round, Wright likes L.A.'s chances.

"If AD is going to be out two weeks, and the Nuggets end up beating the Blazers, then I would be heavily concerned," Wright said. "If the Blazers beat the Nuggets, AD can take his time because I think LeBron can win two of these next three on his own."

Of course, all of these hypotheticals assume the Suns can stay healthy themselves.

Chris Paul has been battling a shoulder injury that could tip the scales back in L.A.'s favor if it were to worsen. That said, he looked to be trending in the right direction in Game 4 after struggling mightily in the first three games of the series.

But as Davis' latest injury shows, that can all change in an instant, and there will be little rest for the weary on both sides, as the series resumes at 10 p.m. ET Tuesday.

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