The Lakers‘ trio of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Dennis Schröder will play on Saturday for the team’s afternoon tilt against the Pacers, head coach Frank Vogel announced.
Los Angeles has seen the aforementioned threesome all miss extended stretches as James and Davis dealt with injuries while Schröder was recently cleared from the NBA’s health and safety protocols. At 40-30, the Lakers occupy the seventh seed in the Western Conference and will need to win their remaining two games to have a chance to avoid the play-in tournament.
Schröder entered the safety protocols in early May, causing the Lakers to be without their starting point guard during a critical stretch. He has averaged 15.5 PPG and 5.8 APG across 59 contests.
Davis missed the Lakers’ last game against the Rockets on Wednesday but has otherwise been a regular for the Lakers since returning from a two-month absence due to right calf strain and tendinosis. Davis has been limited to just 34 games this season, averaging 21.9 PPG and 8.0 RPG for the defending champions.
As for James, he suffered a high ankle sprain on March 20 and returned on April 30, but then reaggravated the injury just days later on May 2. He has not played since and has seen his return pushed back on several occasions. James was in the midst of an MVP-caliber season before his injury, averaging 25.0 PPG, 7.9 RPG and 7.8 APG in 43 games.
LeChina is back!
Just a kid from Akron
Who is lechina?
Reporters have declared that Lakers pass the first round playoffs
They don’t respect Suns
For Suns and Mavs, the playoffs success is to pass the first round
For clippers and Jazz, they have to pass second
LeBron James has never lost a 1st round series
Was LeBron ever injured for a long time before a first round series? You need to factor that in since he will not be 100%.
they need to get out of the bubble first. That is a lot of time missed building chemistry with other team members. AD and LeBron are not even close to 100% back. Come back too soon and a injury is more liely to happen again.
The Lakers must win both today and tomorrow plus they also need Portland to lose tomorrow if they are to avoid the play-in tournament next week.
And guess what, if they are in the play in they will win easily lol. They outmatched the Warriors bad this season. If they somehow lose to GS they would demolish the Grizzlies or Spurs. Yall delusional in thinking this play in is a death sentence.
And then they will get swept in the first round by Phoenix. Congrats!
They just beat Phienix without LeBron lol. That young team doesn’t stand a chance in a best of 7 against LAL.
Clippers tanked vs Rockets to make sure Denver would do the same vs Por tomorrow
Big tough Clips moving down in the standings to not face the Lakers…they should be Proud!
The most important thing to remember
There is no motives for Nuggets to beat Blazers tomorrow
If Nuggets do defeat Blazers, Nuggets play Lakers in the first round because Blazers are the 7th seed.
Nuggets are very smart.
Don’t forget Nuggets placed Rockets on the second round against Warriors in 2019 and against Lakers in 2020.
Denver is going to sit their guys tomorrow and lose on purpose vs the Blazers
This was all set up by Clippers tho Friday night losing on purpose to the Rockets….
You guys all claim Lakers are garbage but damn that’s 2 orgs in 3 days saying differently
The Clippers lost on purpose to a team missing 10 players, right.
The Lakers barely beat the same team on the last play of the game.
The Rockets are going to be the most improved team in the NBA next season, especially if they do well in the lottery and keep their top-4 pick. Everyone here is going to be astonished at how much better they are in 2022 even though they’re supposed to go 25-57.
Harden Westbrook MVPs. Different name, same delusion. Dude goes on and on performing mental gymnastics to say the Lakers are actually not a good team. Meanwhile claims the awful Rockets who at best will add a top 5 draft pick will be some superteam.
The clippers didn’t play people on purpose, the Lakers did
This is about intent Wally
You didnt think it was odd Zubac and Morris went to the bench healthy after playing 8 mins each??? HMMMM
The basketball gods frown upon this kind of behavior. He who manipulates the standings by losing on purpose shall be punished. Funny how none of these teams have ever won anything and it will continue that way.