NBA News: Friday, March 3rd, 2023

Now that the calendar has officially flipped to March, a lot of the basketball focus is going to be on NCAA Basketball and March Madness. That doesn’t mean that the focus on the NBA will go away completely, as this is the time of year when the playoff races really start to heat up. 

Most of the NBA news of late has been the return or debut of superstar players or updates on injuries to other star players. NBA teams continue to be hit hard by the injury bug, and those injuries are going to have an effect on how the rest of the season plays out.

LeBron Out At Least Three Weeks

The Los Angeles Lakers are going to have to make a run without LeBron James, and it’s unclear if the former MVP is even going to return to the floor at all this season. James suffered an injury to a tendon on his right foot, and he is currently sidelined for an indefinite period of time. 

The Lakers haven’t been able to provide a specific timetable for return for James, but he is going to be missing a significant amount of time. James isn’t even going to have his tendon reevaluated for three weeks, and that could put him out almost the entire month of March. 

James initially believed that he had stepped on the foot of a Dallas Mavericks player, but that was not the case. It was a non-contact injury suffered by the Lakers star, and those injuries are typically more serious than a contact injury.

Dragic Looking to Land With Bucks

The Chicago Bulls made a surprising decision to waive Goran Dragic after agreeing to a deal with Patrick Beverley. Dragic was having a solid season for the Bulls, but they let him go and pursue an opportunity with another team. 

According to league sources, Dragic and the Milwaukee Bucks are close to a deal that would allow him to finish out the season with the team. Milwaukee has had an interest in the point guard over the last few years, and they are hoping to bring in the veteran to run the second unit. 

Milwaukee has also announced that it will be signing forward Meyers Leonard to another 10-day contract after he performed well during the first stint. The Bucks have been hit hard by the injury bug all season long, and they are trying to fill out the roster with veterans for the stretch run.

Ball Brothers Both Done For Season

The Charlotte Hornets have announced that LaMelo Ball is out for the season after undergoing right ankle surgery. Ball suffered an injury on Monday night in a game with the Detroit Pistons, and the fracture needed to be repaired by a surgeon. 

The third-year guard ended his season playing just 36 games, and that came on the heels of him being an All-Star last year. It was a miserable season for the Charlotte Hornets as a whole, but Ball should be ready to go by training camp.

Lonzo Ball never even played a game for the Chicago Bulls as he was trying to recover from a knee injury. Ball suffered multiple setbacks in his recovery, and the Bulls decided to shut him down.

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All Media on this page by Associated Press.