LeBron James suffered knee injury in Lakers' Game 5 loss to Timberwolves

Khobi Price, The Orange County Register on May 2, 2025

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — If the Lakers’ 2024-25 season didn’t end on Wednesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs, they would have likely had to play on without LeBron James for an extended period.

James suffered a Grade 2 medial collateral ligament (MCL) sprain in his left knee during the fourth quarter of Wednesday night’s Game 5 loss to the Timberwolves, a source confirmed to the Southern California News Group on Friday.

The injury would have likely led to a 3-5 week recovery timeline, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, who first reported the injury on Friday, mentioning James received an MRI on Thursday.

James suffered the knee injury during a collision with Timberwolves guard Donte DiVincenzo during the fourth quarter of Game 5.

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 in the game.

He 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 (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, 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 1 1/2 minutes to pull out the series-clinching victory.

The 40-year-old four-time league MVP finished his 22nd NBA season with regular-season averages of 24.4 points (51.3% shooting, 37.6% from 3-point range), 8.2 assists, 7.8 rebounds and a steal in 70 games (34.9 minutes).

He averaged 25.4 points, nine rebounds, 5.6 assists, a pair of steals and 1.8 blocked shots in the Lakers’ five playoff games (40.8 minutes).

James suffered a strained left hip flexor in the April 11 victory over the Houston Rockets that clinched the No. 3 seed and a 50-win regular season for the Lakers, with the injury lingering into the start of the playoffs. He was listed as probable for Game 1 because of the hip injury, but he wasn’t on the injury report entering Games 2-5.

Lakers coach JJ Redick said James’ hip injury typically has a recovery period of 1-2 weeks. James scored 38 points in the Game 3 road loss to the Timberwolves on April 25, exactly two weeks after suffering the injury. He was also sidelined for two weeks from early to mid-March because of a strained left groin.

James was noticeably limping in the hallways at Crypto.com Arena when walking to the podium for his postgame/end-of-season news conference.

“I don’t have an answer to that,” James responded when asked how much longer he expects to play. “Something I sit down with my family, my wife and my support group and kind of just talk through it and see what happens. And just have a conversation with myself on how long I want to continue to play. I don’t know the answer to that right now, to be honest. So we’ll see.”

James, who has played in a league-record 292 playoff games without missing a game because of an injury, would have likely had that streak snapped and been sidelined for Friday’s Game 6 at Target Center in Minneapolis if the Lakers had beaten the Timberwolves on Wednesday.