After initially being upgraded from out to doubtful for Sunday’s game vs. the Bulls, Lakers forward LeBron James is now being listed as questionable to play this afternoon, according to the team (Twitter link via Marc Stein).
James is expected to test his injured right foot during pregame warmups today to see if he’ll be able to play, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
While the latest updates don’t mean James will definitely be activated on Sunday, they suggest his return to the court is closer than previously believed. Reports on Thursday indicated that James was optimistic about playing again during the final week of the regular season — if he’s able to suit up today, he’d be back with two full weeks still left in the season.
James last played exactly one month ago, on February 26 against Dallas. He sustained a foot injury in that game and was diagnosed with a tendon injury in his right foot a few days later, with the team ruling him out for at least three weeks. He has since resumed doing on-court work.
The Lakers have played well without James, going 8-5 in the 13 games he has missed, but they’d certainly welcome his return to the lineup as they attempt to secure a postseason berth. L.A. is currently in a three-way tie for seventh place in the West — the Lakers, Timberwolves, and Pelicans are all 37-37.
Poor defense, over-reliant on the 3 ball which hes bad at shooting, turnover machine, injuries are taking their toll. The problem with Lebron is that he really should only be scoring around 12 points a game and putting in more effort on defense. Hes really just stat padding at this point, his 30 ppg don’t contribute to winning basketball. Then he uses the excuse that hes 38 years old and putting up 30 ppg so none of the losses are his fault. Pathetic
Majority games are close game
The most important thing is to sell the fouls and goes to free throw line
NBA is business, which has sellers and buyers Lakers are foul seller
Lakers are winning without LeBron so why would they want him back early?
So he can (maybe) play 4 games instead of 2 before the play-in to, you know, build chemistry with his 4 new teammates and stuff before games really count.
They could miss the play in and take the 6th spot.
Is it the Lakers or Lebron that wants him to play? How does he feel about the Lakers going 8-5 in his absence and moving from 13th to 8th in the standings? Maybe he’s glad to see the Lakers success without him.
Maybe not.
He got his stats. Team isn’t good. Needs to save games to play later so he can beat parish record. Players used to have pride. They should be docked pay or pay cuts for taking games off
Not a Lakers fan so I don’t care how it goes, but the Lakers seem to have made the right moves at the deadline and are playing watchable ball these days. Working Lebron in for a few games to build chemistry with an essentially different looking team than he left it dramatically changes the dynamics of that whole team again. It’s Lebron, you don’t work him in, he changes the team entirely. Plays, rotations, minutes… everything changes drastically. It’s weird to think that adding one of the all time greats back into a lineup actually makes the team worse… but at this point in the season I can’t help but think that him coming back does more harm than good. With more time left in the season you have to have him in there, but right now just seems like bad timing.
I feel exactly the same I don’t really want him back. I think he can be very effective off the bench but that’s definitely not happening even though it should. He’d be more rested and effective. The team is faster and plays more fluid defense without him
Lakers aren’t gonna do anything special with or without LeBron this year…
They have to out score their average every game to win… They can’t rely on defence…