LeBron James gave his injured right ankle one more day of rest Tuesday as the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the New York Knicks. James is targeting a return on Wednesday against the Houston Rockets, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Dave McMenamin.
“It is sort of a soft plan for him to play tomorrow,” coach Frank Vogel said Tuesday before the Lakers’ 101-99 overtime win. “He’s going to do some more rehab work today, and we’ll evaluate the response to that work tomorrow.”
James was a full participant in practice Monday, and Vogel said James came out of the session fine and would not term Tuesday’s absence precautionary.
Although it seemed as if James was trending toward a return against New York, the Lakers coach did not officially reveal his status during Monday’s availability.
“We did some drill work. We did some contrived scrimmages, and we did a short, full scrimmage,” Vogel said Monday when asked what the practice entailed. “And he did all of it.”
James missed six weeks due to a high right ankle sprain before a two-game return against Toronto and Sacramento. He then missed the next five games in an attempt to rest the ankle.
James visited an ankle specialist last week, sources told ESPN, and has made considerable improvement in his on-court workouts without experiencing the “sharp pain” he reported in the losses to the Raptors and Kings. He previously had difficulty making hard cuts and elevating, sources told Wojnarowski.
The Lakers will raise their 2020 championship banner on the night of the Rockets game, with approximately 3,000 fans expected to be in attendance.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.