Lakers forward LeBron James will miss Sunday’s game against the Nuggets as he continues to be hampered by a left ankle sprain, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
James badly rolled his left ankle last Sunday against the Pelicans, missed two games, returned on Friday vs. New Orleans, and now will miss his third game with the injury. As Bill Oram of The Athletic notes (via Twitter), Sunday’s contest will tip off less than 36 hours after Friday’s ended, not giving James much time to physically recover after playing 40 minutes on Friday.
Coach Frank Vogel confirmed that James is out Sunday due to the sore ankle and is considered day-to-day going forward. He also said Anthony Davis was sore after his first game back in several weeks, but Davis will play against the Nuggets (Twitter links via Mark Medina of NBA.com).
The reeling Lakers have lost five straight games and are a measly 4-15 since the All-Star break. They currently sit with a 31-46 record and are the No. 11 seed in the West. Los Angeles trails the Spurs by one game for the final spot in the play-in tournament, but the Spurs hold the tiebreaker due to a better conference record — in short, the Lakers need to finish with a better record than the Spurs to get the No. 10 seed.
In addition to Sunday’s home game against the Nuggets, the Lakers finish out the season with road games against the Suns and Warriors, plus a home meeting against the Thunder and a regular season finale in Denver.
James is the league’s leading scorer with 30.3 points per game, but he needs to play at least two more games to qualify for the scoring title. MVP candidates Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid are currently second and third in scoring average with 30.1 and 30.0 points per game, respectively.
Here today
Gone to Maui
Got to improve that draft pick…lol
What pick?? They don’t have a first till like 2027
It was a joke.
As a Grizzlies fan, this infuriates me to no end
He avoiding the good teams right now so he can pad his stats against bad teams. Why play 40 minutes against a bad team to just miss the next game against a good team?
Scoring title means more to him at this point than making the playoffs
And a whole lot more possible
Giannis or Embiid score 45, James will be back next game, guaranteed.
@miltpappas… If you read the article you will see that as of now it is pretty irrelevant if Giannis or Embiid score , 20, 30 or 60… it ain’t mattering unless LBJ plays 2 more games… reading comprehension is such a nice thing to have my friend!
@afsooner02… Sounds like MJ’s mentality to me!
@ARC2… Why are you so dense?
There is no point for the LAL to beat DEN, PHO or GSW right now, their rivals & the must win game was with NOP, anyone & their mother can see that!
You see, teams in the middle or bottom of the table must rest players or reserve them against the big teams & play at full force against lesser teams that are in their own range, just common sense, I mean if you can’t see that, no one can help you, right?
@ARC nah, the Lakers won’t play bad teams the rest of the year.
Ok so? They are still bad wether he plays or not. At this point annoucing his injuries daily is like announcing some random 2 way player is hurt
Bron gave up on this season awhile ago. Gotta have something to play for. So why not go for scoring title.
Ok ill bite…How and when did LBJ give up on the Lakers AL?
I guess you don’t watch him. There was a time when Bron could take any team into playoffs. You think it’s Westbrook fault they are out. Either he can’t or he’s gotten more selfish. Either way he’s concentrated on his scoring. Means winning has taken a back seat. I’m sure at some point. He knew this team was going nowhere. So why not concentrate on scoring. Even with AD they were not getting out the west. He knows that. Bron is one of smartest players ever. The way season has gone, injuries and all. What else was left. If you really know this gm and played it. You can see the attitude of players. I’m not the only who has said it. I guess you can’t see it.
Why not concentrate on scoring?
Umm b/c nobody else can score on this team?
B/c his fg% is at a 4 yr high of almost 53% !!? B/c he’s leading the league in scoring at age 37?
But you want him to get Stanley Johnson involved more? Yikes
And again in about 200 painful words you didn’t say How and When LBJ {gave?} up on this team like I asked (The only thing I asked)
**Oh and btw to dismiss your original {wrong } post per usual sitting out games doesn’t help LBJ win the scoring title it HURTS…
Joel cut the lead in half today, he’s going for it too in a major way, and will def score more than 30.2 avg rest of season so LBJ can’t sit idle… but that’s math and I’m not expecting you to understand that as you clearly didn’t even understand how the salary cap earlier today….baby steps, maybe someday we will let you sit at the adult table when discussing NBA matters
Jokic was sublime, AG solid and Barton had a good game. Russell Westbrook and AD were great too.
Russell’s great game and efficiency was illustrative of how ill-matched his and Lebron’s games are.