The Los Angeles Lakers updated their injury report for Sunday night’s game against the Sacramento Kings and LeBron James (left foot arthritis) and Rui Hachimura (illness) are both available to play.
With it being the second night of a back-to-back, James’ status was in doubt as he was originally listed as questionable before testing it out pregame and determining that he is able to play.
When James came back from injury earlier this year, he made it clear that his status would be up in the air for all back-to-backs in his 23rd NBA season. The 41-year-old obviously has a lot of mileage on his body, so it will a “play it by ear situation” on all back-to-backs with him being able to suit up in this one.
The other update is that Hachimura will return after missing the last two games due to illness. He will have fresh legs after sitting out on Saturday and should provide a nice scoring punch for L.A. without James in the lineup.
The Lakers are coming off one of their better wins of the season, blowing out the shorthanded Golden State Warriors from start to finish. They will look to do the same thing against a Kings team that is missing a number of key pieces like Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, Keegan Murray, DeAndre Hunter and Dylan Cardwell.
While the Lakers have had their way with the Kings so far this season, it’s not a game they can take lightly if they want to build some momentum and keep pace with the other top teams in the Western Conference.
Rui Hachimura thinks LeBron James won’t be appreciated until he retires
What LeBron James is doing at his age is unprecedented, but Lakers teammate Rui Hachimura doesn’t think it will be fully appreciated until he retires from the NBA.
“It’s a crazy thing, I don’t even know how to describe it,” Hachimura recently said. “I was watching him growing up and not playing with him. But I think at this age and this level, high level that he’s been doing it since he was little, the crazy thing is now I know how this league is. So I think for him to be able to do those crazy things, I think people are gonna realize after he actually retires. Because now people, you get used to watching him, but I think after he retires we gonna be able to actually appreciate what he did in this league.”
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