Lakers star LeBron James could return from an abdominal strain for Friday’s road game against the Celtics, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The Lakers (8-7) have played just three of their 15 games on the road, but are now embarking on a five-game trip, which begins Wednesday in Milwaukee. Without James, they’ve resembled little more than Anthony Davis‘ old Pelicans teams.
This news comes a couple days after a source told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that James is “progressing great” and should return to game action “soon.”
James has missed the previous seven games, having been sidelined for two weeks.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel said on Sunday that James had yet to take part in practice. Either way, you can be sure that the Lakers don’t want to rush him back — given that James turns 37 years old next month and they’d rather have him healthy at the end of the season than now.
He is averaging 24.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 7.0 assists in his 19th season. He also missed two games earlier this year with ankle soreness.
LA plays at Indiana the night after Boston.
“If the Lakers are easing James back into action, he likely wouldn’t play both games of that back-to-back set next week,” noted Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors.
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