The Los Angeles Lakers have gotten back on track recently, picking up wins over the New Orleans Pelicans and Milwaukee Bucks over the weekend to help shake off last week's blowout road loss vs the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers currently sit at 10-4, good for fourth place in the Western Conference, and are awaiting the injury return of LeBron James, which could come as soon as this week.
On Monday, James spoke after participating in Lakers practice.
“My lungs feel like a newborn baby … I got to get my lungs back up to a grown man,” admitted James, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN on X, formerly Twitter.
McMenamin also reported that James “said he would have to see how his body responds to today before deciding to play tomorrow or not.”
The Lakers would certainly like to have James back out on the court as soon as possible to take some of the burden off Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
A key addition for the Lakers
It will be interesting to see how the Lakers' lineups and playstyle are altered once LeBron James is back in the lineup. Upon his return, Reaves will be relegated back to his traditional number three option role, while Doncic will still remain Los Angeles' clear-cut primary ballhandler.
James, meanwhile, is entering a season in which he is clearly not his team's first option for the first time in his career, and it will be intriguing to see how he and head coach JJ Redick approach the game with him back in the lineup.
The good news for the Lakers is that they have just one game in the next six days, on Tuesday night at home against the Utah Jazz, which could mark James' season debut. That game is slated to tip off at 10:30 PM ET.
