After missing five games with swelling in his left knee, Lakers star LeBron James will return for tonight’s nationally televised contest with the Knicks, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
James was originally listed as doubtful, but he tested the knee and decided he was able to go. He hasn’t played since January 25 when he logged 34 minutes in a win over the Nets.
The Lakers went 1-4 while he was sidelined and are currently ninth in the Western Conference with a 25-28 record.
James will replace Avery Bradley in the starting lineup, tweets Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register. Malik Monk will remain in a starting role.
James has missed 17 games so far this season, but he’s still putting up elite numbers when he does play, averaging 29.1 points, 7.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists per night while shooting 52.2% from the field and 35.2% from three-point range.
never come back early from a knee injury. This could be bad news for the Lakers. They should reduce his minutes to under 30 minutes tonight.
Desperation might not be the right word but if this team was able to do anything up to date you’d be buying LeBron 21 days off right now.
These things {usually} matter
Seems like a big mistake but LeBron is probably tired of watching them lose. He better not amp up to much with dunks.
LeBron needs to be back because
Wolves are better than Lakers
Clippers still want to make playoffs
Davis is injury prone
Westbrook can’t play final 3 minutes
Russ can’t play the first 45 minutes either
Please do and play lebron ( the self proclaimed king said in the 3rd person) 48 minutes too
Tonight is last yrs Randle. What a difference. He might be hearing the whispers he’s gone. Why must it take half a year to play well. This is RJs team now.
Hope Kings are watching is all I’m saying.
No real D in second half. And refs just suck. I think Bron and AD are biggest cry babies around. When you jump in a players way. Who is already in the air. It’s a foul. The offensive player has a right to basket when he’s in the air before the defender. It’s that simple. That was a BS call by all.
Again a prime example of not having a gm manager on team. A real PG can close out these gms. When will we learn this. Thibs loyalty to Randle is starting to affect me. You can’t have an offense reliant on a ball stopper. Randle thinks he’s Magic. All he is. is losing games. Thibs needs an offensive coordinator.
The Knicks have no half court offence right now
They sorely sorely need a PG to get them in and out of sets.
All I saw tonight was early ISO or late clock scrambling, not that Lakers offence was much better (or different for that matter) Both teams are in trouble this year
On a good note I think RJ has a gear we haven’t quite fully seen/absorbed yet. Career high tonight in points; looked amazing.
I like him playing a small 3 better than the 2 (not that there’s much difference these days) but it allows for a future shooter (not Fourn) and a future true Pg (?) to space the floor for him better
If you watched the first half. That’s how they played mostly last yr. Ball movement and looking for good looks. That helps when you do t have a lead PG. Thibs loyalty to Randle is what’s not working here. A lead PG is best for RJ, Mitch, Obi, Fournier, Grimes, Noel, Taj, Burkes.
A lead PG can run offense as a flow. And get shots to players in their spot.
This second half offense. And you do have to give credit to other teams D. It makes Knicks shut down flow. And then Randle wants to go iso. And the movement and sharing ball ends. Randle should be posting all the small players they put on him. Get the ball from passers. Not trying to muscle down or dribbling them down. It’s not smart ball. They need a pass first PG who runs a team. A CP3 type. Haliburton would be my choice. But we ain’t getting him. So who’s out there we can realistically get. I’m ready for anyone at this point. A real PG would closed out Lakers. Fox seems like best available at this point.
There’s no Pg’s out there to get and if there was you wouldn’t want to pay the toll imo
I agree, its a big need tho
Id scratch at Cubans leg as hard as I could if there was a remote undercurrent within Dallas that they don’t want to pay him or at least have reservations.
Rose obv has the connections and you gotta great set of vet contracts to help Dallas the next 1.5 yrs . It’s a longshot considering how much Dallas needs Brunson this year but you can offer up an enticing enough package he has to at least give it a thought. Hate the free agent class and aint too many teams sellin PG’s these days
Whoop de doo, meathead, whoop de doo
Lakers window means playoffs window
Good, blow out the knee so his sorry a…. Can go to China. What a pos.