LeBron James Plans To Play In Lakers Remaining Regular Season Games

Barring injury, LeBron says he is not sitting out games as the Lakers struggle to stay in playoff race.

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James is making it clear.

Unless he is sidelined with an injury, he will be playing in the team's final 18 regular season games as the Lakers attempted to end a five-year playoff drought.

"That would take a lot of convincing from Luke [Walton] on up," James said, according to ESPN.com. "Unless I'm hurt, I'm not sitting games."

James and the Lakers are in danger of missing the postseason after their third loss in a row, a 113-105 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night which put them 5 1/2 games out of the Western Conference's final playoff spot.

James, who had 27 points, eight rebounds and six assists in the loss, said he doesn't know how the team will respond should they be eliminated from playoff contention.

"For me personally, I can [only] speak for myself. I can't speak for everybody else," James said. "Continue to be a professional, and be as great as you can be every single night, no matter the circumstances. 'Cause someone is always watching."

The schedule doesn't get any easier. The Lakers face the Denver Nuggets and the Boston Celtics at home before embarking on a five-game East Coast trip next week.

"I've been talking about it for a while now," James aaid about the playoffs. "Everyone's been talking about the postseason, we need to worry about each and every game."