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Lakers’ LeBron James rips reports of target date for his return

March 23, 2023

When will LeBron James be back in uniform for the Lakers? It depends on the source.

The Lakers offered a positive but vague update Thursday, saying the 38-year-old has been cleared for on-court activity and “gradual basketball movement progression.” Specifically, the update said there is no timeline for his return from a right foot tendon injury, which has kept him out of action since Feb. 26.

That was followed in short order with multiple media reports with a target date: ESPN, The Athletic and TNT all reported that James hoped to play in the last week of the season, possibly the last three or four games.

That apparently set off James, who sent out a tweet: “There wasn’t an evaluation today and there hasn’t been any target date for my return. I’m just working around the clock, every day(3X a day) to give myself to best chance of coming back full strength whenever that is. God bless y’all sources. I speak for myself!”

That might not settle things, but the key takeaway – aside from James arguing with reputable news outlets – is that he’s getting closer to a return.

Having James back would be a huge boost to the Lakers (36-37), who were in 10th place in the West as of midday Thursday. When healthy, James has been the team’s leading scorer (29.5 ppg) and leading playmaker (6.9 apg) and one of the leading rebounders (8.4 rpg). James’ return would bring additional scoring and playmaking punch to a group that has gone 11-6 since the trade deadline and already boasts the seventh-best net rating (plus-3.6) in that span.

James has done spot shooting, and teammate Dennis Schröder mentioned last week that he was working out three times a day. But the update also was an upbeat advancement after coach Darvin Ham said Wednesday that James had been “not physically able” to participate in team shootarounds.

That hasn’t stopped him, however, from offering insights to the coaching staff and teammates, Ham said.

“Just talking through different matchups, different guys, giving guys opportunities,” he said. “He’s thrown me a couple of nice ATOs we’ve drawn up in the huddle. It’s been great. He’s just being engaged and really talking through the mentality, that time is of the essence. Only (nine) games left, and we really gotta push through and make this thing happen.”

James’ refuting of reports aligns with his efforts in recent seasons to make a return as soon as possible from injury. Multiple times during his Lakers tenure, James has been upgraded from “out” a day prior to a game all the way to “available” at tip-off. But in his 20th season, his ability to gut out an early return from an injury has been compromised: In the 2020-21 season, James struggled to come back from a high ankle sprain, playing two games after missing 20 straight, then missing six more games after laboring in both losses.

Assuming the reports are credible, the Lakers could face a crunch at the end of the season to get James back in rhythm before a potential play-in game or first-round series. The team’s last five games feature three road games at the Rockets, Jazz and Clippers, followed by two home games against the Suns and Jazz. Given that all three of the final games will be played in Crypto.com Arena, it could represent James’ best chance to ramp back up all within Southern California confines.

Until then, the Lakers’ have had perhaps more success than expected with James out, going 7-5 in the interim. One of the players who stepped into a starting role, Austin Reaves, said the team has been able to thrive off the high stakes of games.

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“Since Bron’s been out, we’ve had to have multiple guys fill what he does because he does everything on the court,” Reaves said. “So I’ve tried to be more aggressive offensively both ways, getting teammates involved, and then also scoring and getting to the line. So it’s really just been going back and playing basketball the way that I love, the way that I’ve always played and having fun with it.”

It’s even more fun, of course, when the whole team is able to play.

Oklahoma City at Lakers

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday

Where: Crypto.com Arena

TV/Radio: Spectrum SportsNet/ESPN LA 710

Orange County Register

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Lakers’ LeBron James rips reports of target date for his return

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