After Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Reddick revealed LeBron James is close to making a return for his regular-season debut, Hall of Fame forward and ESPN analyst Charles Barkley downplayed his injury due to sciatica. For Barkley, it's the Lakers' nice way of giving James time to adapt to his older figure.

James, 40, is in his 23rd NBA season, which Barkley believes is the biggest factor into why LeBron hasn't played a game yet, he said, per the Dan Patrick Show.

“He’s just old. Everybody gets old. He says it's sciatica. You know what that means, Dan? Yeah, I know his back hurts,” Barkley said. “All old people's back hurt, Dan. All old people’s back hurt. You can dress it up like sciatica. You can come up with all these medical terms. LeBron is old.”

Luka Doncic, dealing with a left finger sprain and a lowe left leg contusion, joined LeBron James on the Lakers' injury list. Reddick says both are close to returning to his starting lineup. In the meantime, Los Angeles took care of business in a 116-115 win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, as the Lakers have won two of their last three games.

They'll look to carry the momentum into the Lakers' first NBA Cup matchup of the season against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday.

Deandre Ayton keeps it 100 about the Lakers' NBA Cup matchup

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Lakers center Deandre Ayton (5) dunks the ball in the second half against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena
Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Veteran center Deandre Ayton addressed his first NBA Cup game since joining the Lakers during the offseason. For Ayton, he feels the difference in the way players compete amid the NBA Cup games. He's looking forward to that heightened level of competition, he said, per ESPN's Dave McMenamin.

“Yesterday, I think, I found out it was a tourney game, starting to see tourney basketball and things like that,” Ayton said. “I’m excited. We know games like this is when we turn it up a notch. I'm just happy we've been playing the way we've been playing, where we up the physicality and defense to where coaches want. Now we have extreme confidence going out there.”

The Lakers will face the Grizzlies on the road in their first NBA Cup matchup.