LeBron to return to practice next week, will miss upcoming games

LeBron James has been off the basketball court for the Los Angeles Lakers ever since Christmas Day 2018. A left groin injury has kept the NBA superstar sidelined, and during that time the team has suffered in terms of their Western Conference standings. However, some positive news arrived from a new report on Wednesday.

According to ESPN’s report, James is going to miss at least the next two games for the Lakers but will return to practice next week. His agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports provided the latest update a day after the team recorded a home win against the Chicago Bulls.

James will miss two challenging games on the team’s upcoming schedule. They are set to face the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night in OKC. On Saturday (Jan. 19), the team takes on the Houston Rockets, also on the road. After that, the team has a matchup against the Golden State Warriors in Los Angeles on Monday (Jan. 21). That’s the team LeBron originally suffered his groin strain against on Christmas Day.

So far, Lebron James has missed 11 games and the team has gone 4-7 over that stretch. Tuesday night’s win at the Staples Center was a 107-100 victory over the struggling Chicago Bulls. Lonzo Ball led the way with 19 points as the team finds different leaders whenever they can in James’ absence.

Even though they were able to pick up a win, it nearly slipped away. Los Angeles was up by as much as 18 points and the Bulls managed to get within five points in the fourth quarter. As of that win, the Lakers are 24-21 overall and tied with the Utah Jazz at the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference standings. They’d previously been as high as the fourth-best team prior to LeBron’s injury.

While they survived that late-game comeback against the Bulls, the Lakers had difficulties against two other teams with losing records. The New York Knicks defeated them 119-112 in Los Angeles on Jan. 5 to snap an eight-game losing streak. James’ former team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, came into the Staples Center and snapped a 12-game losing streak with a 101-95 win.

So far, James had been doing some half-court shooting and passing drills at the Lakers’ practice facility over the past week. A return to full practice will certainly be a welcome sight. While he won’t travel with the team for their two upcoming road games, he has yet to be ruled out of the Monday game against the Golden State Warriors.