LeBron James questionable for Lakers’ In-Season Tourney game vs. Suns

It doesn’t seem real likely, but LeBron James could miss the Lakers’ single-elimination In-Season Tournament game vs. the Suns on Tuesday night.

Or so the Lakers say.

According to the official injury report, James is listed as questionable with a left calf contusion. But that’s just the injury report. You can be pretty sure that James is really hurting if he misses an opportunity to stamp his name on the first NBA Cup. That will make it LeBron 1, Michael Jordan 0. (Thank heavens Jordan didn’t have to play in these things.)

Anyway, on the other side, Suns stars Kevin Durant and Devin Booker are both expected to play. Both have spent time on the injured list recently.

And Lakers coach Darvin Ham said that when it comes to defending those two … well, you just have to keep at it the best you can.

“You can’t get discouraged,” Ham said. “You’ve definitely got to have a multiple-effort mentality, but yet still more so, a next play mentality because you can play the perfect defense and they still score.”

The Lakers and Suns entered Monday as two of the final eight teams left. Though the Pacers beat the Celtics to advance to the Final Four in Las Vegas.