Following the Golden State Warriors’ victory on Thursday night, the Los Angeles Lakers dropped to 10th place in the Western Conference rankings. Now, the Lakers still have a chance to avoid the dreadful 9/10 side of the play-in tournament bracket, but they must win out to have a good shot. As a result, their Friday night game against the Memphis Grizzlies becomes even more significant; the question now is whether LeBron James and Anthony Davis will participate in this key matchup.
LeBron James is the kind of player who always turns up for his team when it matters. Nonetheless, there remains a chance that he could be out for the Lakers’ Friday night matchup against the Grizzlies, as important as this game is. At present, the Lakers have James listed on the injury report as “questionable” to play due to a left ankle peroneal tendinopathy.
At age 39, James has a ton of mileage on his body; after all, he is the all-time leader in minutes played, regular season and playoffs combined. The Lakers star even admitted earlier in the season that the ankle problems he’s been dealing with have come as a result of the wear and tear he has accumulated throughout his illustrious career.
Still, LeBron James was healthy enough to play the Lakers’ most recent game, a 134-120 loss against the Warriors. That was a huge loss for the Lakers; the Warriors’ win gave the season series in favor of them, making it extra difficult for the Purple and Gold to move up from 10.
In the event of a three-way tie between the Lakers, Warriors, and Sacramento Kings, it will be Los Angeles that loses out since they went a combined 1-7 against those two teams.
LeBron James has never lost a game in the play-in tournament, and there might not be a more terrifying player to face in a single-elimination game than him. But the Lakers will certainly prefer to finish 8th. A win against the Grizzlies could go a long way towards that goal and James’ availability will help immensely to that end.
But with a tougher matchup in Game 82 (New Orleans Pelicans), there could be a chance that James misses this game against the 27-win Grizzlies, especially when he and Anthony Davis alternated absences recently.
