The Cleveland Cavaliers are currently dealing with a lot of injuries to some of their key players including Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving among others. The most important player on the team, LeBron James, is still healthy for the most part though and the Cavaliers want to keep it that way because losing him for any period of time would be detrimental. In an effort to ensure James is healthy heading into the regular season he might not play again this preseason, according to Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group.
James was a healthy scratch when the Cavaliers lost to the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night and with two games remaining on the preseason schedule head coach David Blatt said he will miss at least one of them but probably both. James has only appeared in two preseason games but Blatt thinks that is plenty and that he should be fine when they open up the regular season on October 27th against the Chicago Bulls.
LeBron reportedly received an anti-inflammatory injection in his back earlier this week which was considered more precautionary than anything. James had the same injection last season, was held out two weeks after getting it and responded really well to it so the Cavaliers had planned all along to give him this injection again, according to Jason Lloyd of Ohio.com. The difference between this time and last time is that James was actually hurt last year, this year they used the injection as a preemptive measure.
James missed a career high 13 games a season ago and he is now 30 years old. In his regular season and postseason career combined LeBron has played more than 43,000 minutes, not including preseason or Team USA, and no matter how much of a physical specimen you are that will wear on you. LeBron is known as an invincible player who never gets hurt but the reality is that he has had back issues the past couple of years and that is something Cleveland will have to keep an eye on.
There will be games this season when the Cavaliers decide to rest the superstar and that is smart because without a fully healthy LeBron they would be in serious trouble. For right now the fact that James had an injection in his back and he isn't likely to play the final two preseason games isn't a big deal but James' health this season is definitely worth keeping an eye on because he is now getting up there in minutes and age and he is not as invincible as he once was.
