Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James will have his right foot injury reassessed in two weeks, but he is expected to be out for a longer time period, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
Wojnarowski says the Lakers’ place in the standings could play a role in determining when James returns.
The Lakers (29-32) are currently 12th in the West, a half game out of a play-in tournament spot.
The Lakers have already ruled James — the NBA’s all-time leading scorer — out for Tuesday’s game at Memphis with what they called right foot soreness.
James played 37 minutes in the Lakers’ 111-108 win at Dallas on Sunday, helping Los Angeles rally from a 27-point deficit. But he left the arena with a pronounced limp, with video from The Dallas Morning News showing how much the foot was bothering him.
He got hurt in the third quarter, grabbing at the ankle after spending some time on the floor in obvious pain. But he stayed in to finish the game, noting how important it was to the Lakers’ playoff hopes.
“It’s been better,” James said. “But I definitely wasn’t going to locker room and not finish the game. The importance of this game and then the momentum that we had, I felt like we could steal one after being down.”
James leads the Lakers in scoring at 29.5 points per game, and said at the All-Star break earlier this month that the team’s closing stretch this season would be some of the most important games he has played — noting he didn’t want to miss the postseason for a second consecutive year.
— with files from AP
