Lakers Injury Report: Late LeBron James Update As LA Battles Atlanta Again

Wounded Lakers try to go 2-0 against Hawks.

Tonight, your Los Angeles Lakers will host the visiting Atlanta Hawks for the second time in eight days. Though the team will be missing three of their four good wing defenders, Los Angeles will also be getting one major player back in the fold.

Per the league's latest injury report, All-Star power forward LeBron James will return to the team's lineup tonight after missing Wednesday's heroic and surprising 112-109 Crypto.com Arena victory over a much more complete Miami Heat squad.

The newest Laker, 6'5" swingman shooting guard/small forward Sterling Brown (younger brother to former LA champ Shannon), was available and getting up shots pregame:

Sterling Brown warming up ahead of tonight’s game against the Hawks pic.twitter.com/K3FN0nyQFu

— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) January 7, 2023

The Lakers will of course be without All-Star center Anthony Davis as he continues to recover from a right foot stress injury.

LA will also be missing those three aforementioned good wing defenders: starter Lonnie Walker IV (left knee tendonitis) and shooting guard Austin Reaves (left hamstring strain), who just had his contract guaranteed for the year, are both set to be absent for at least the next two weeks. Forward Troy Brown Jr., who departed Wednesday's Heat game with a left quad strain, is also unavailable.

Unused center Damian Jones is questionable with a sore right great toe. It appears that, given all these absences, two-way Lakers rookies Scotty Pippen Jr. and Cole Swider received a call-up tonight.

It will be up to Darvin Ham to figure out how best to deploy Patrick Beverley against sharpshooting Hawks guards Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, and Bojan Bogdanovic, while less-than-great defensive guards like Dennis Schröder and Russell Westbrook do what they can, I guess.

On the Hawks side, Atlanta will still be without starting center Clint Capela, two-way player Jarrett Culver, and rookie shooting guard Tyrese Martin, who's also on assignment to the team's NBAGL club, the College Park Skyhawks.