James now has to be the number one option for the next few weeks.
The Los Angeles Lakers knew life without Luka Doncic was going to be rough, but losing Austin Reaves on top of it turned a bad weekend into something much worse.
LeBron James made that painfully clear after the Lakers fell to the Dallas Mavericks 134-128 on Sunday night, dropping to 50-28 in a game that showed how thin this roster suddenly looks heading into the playoffs.
James was asked about the wave of injury news that hit the team over the last 72 hours, and he didn't hold back.
"I took my nap after practice and I woke up with that news, and it was like another shot to the head," James said. "It was a shot to the heart, obviously, and to the chest and to the mainframe with Luka. We got that news kind of quick."
What the Lakers Are Dealing With
Doncic went down first with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain during Thursday's blowout loss to Oklahoma City, and the Lakers confirmed he is done for the rest of the regular season.
The timeline puts his return at four to six weeks, which means he could miss the entire first round.
Doncic was putting together an MVP-caliber year before the injury, leading the league in scoring and pulling the Lakers to a 15-2 record in March.
Then came the Reaves news on Saturday.
An MRI revealed a Grade 2 left oblique injury and the team confirmed he is also finished for the regular season with a similar four-to-six-week window.
Reaves had been averaging 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists this season and was playing the best ball of his career alongside Doncic.
Together the two combined for roughly 57 points and nearly 14 assists per game, and now the Lakers have to figure out how to replace all of that overnight.
Can LeBron Carry This Team?
Sunday's game was the first real look at what the Lakers will be working with going forward. James was tremendous, finishing with 30 points, 15 assists and nine rebounds on 12-of-22 shooting.
Luke Kennard recorded his first career triple-double and Jaxson Hayes chipped in 23 off the bench.
The offense held up against a Mavericks team sitting at 25-53.
The problem was defense. Dallas scored 41 in the first quarter and 40 more in the third, and rookie Cooper Flagg went off for 45 points to sink the Lakers on a night where scoring wasn't the issue.
What Comes Next
The bigger question is whether a 41-year-old LeBron, averaging 20.6 points and 6.9 assists this season, can shoulder this kind of load through the postseason.
JJ Redick said the team plans to spread the offensive weight across James, Kennard, Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton while expanding the rotation to include Bronny James and Dalton Knecht.
The Lakers still hold tiebreakers over Denver and Houston and sit four games ahead of Minnesota for the sixth seed, so their playoff positioning is fine.
The real concern is what happens when the postseason starts on April 18 and both stars are still on the sideline.
That is a brutal situation for a team that looked like a genuine title contender just a week ago, and it puts everything squarely on the shoulders of a player who has done this before but never at 41.