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How concerned should LeBron James and the Lakers be right now?

How concerned should we be about the Los Angeles Lakers and their superstars?

When LeBron James returned to the lineup on Friday following a 20-game absence from a high ankle sprain, eight days after Anthony Davis came back after missing 30 games, the Lakers seemed to have survived the simultaneous absences of their two superstars.nullADVERTISEMENTnull

Instead, the Lakers dropped the next two games, with LeBron leaving Sunday’s loss to the Toronto Raptors early due to ankle soreness and sitting out Monday’s surprising win over the surging Denver Nuggets. The Lakers played both those games without starting point guard Dennis Schroder, who’s expected to miss 10 to 14 days due to the NBA’s health and safety protocols.

With James now expected to miss at least the Lakers’ next two games, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the caveat about the Lakers being fine for the playoffs as long as their stars are healthy is in jeopardy.

Will AD, LeBron & Co. be ready to navigate a more difficult path than they faced as the No. 1 seed in last year’s bubble playoffs? Let’s take a look.

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The case for calm: No need to hit the playoffs hot

In the wake of the Lakers’ relatively easy run to the 2020 title — only their NBA Finals win over the Miami Heat extended beyond five games — it’s easy to forget how much concern there was last summer over their sluggish performance in the eight seeding games preceding the postseason. After a thrilling 103-101 win over the rival LA Clippers on the opening night of bubble play in Orlando, Florida, the Lakers lost five of their next seven games.

With little at stake (the Lakers had already clinched the top seed in the West, and home-court advantage was no longer relevant for the Finals), coach Frank Vogel experimented with his lineups, including Dion Waiters playing the fourth-most minutes of any player on the roster in seeding games. As a result, the Lakers ranked 20th of the 22 teams in offensive rating during the seeding games and made a league-low 30% of their 3-pointers.