Is LeBron James Playing? Full Injury Report For Lakers vs Kings

The Los Angeles have a couple of superstars on the injury report, including LeBron James.

Dec 19, 2024; Sacramento, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) reacts after missing a shot against the Sacramento Kings in the second quarter at the Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images / Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Lakers have a clear directive this season. They are going to do everything they can to make the playoffs and make a run for the NBA Championship. In order to do that, they need to climb some spots in the Western Conference standings.

As of right now, they are seventh in the standings. The standings are very bunched in the West, so things can change very quickly. At the same time, the Lakers know they need to be healthy at the end of the season since that's they only chance they have of winning it all.

Both of their superstars are injury-prone. Anthony Davis and LeBron James are guys who have to be healthy at the end of the season, but they get injured often. In order to do that, they are going to have games in which these guys sit out due to injury and rest purposes. The key is to not have both guys out of the same game.

The Lakers are coming off a win against the Sacramento Kings. They won the game 113-100 on the strength of both James and Davis having a good game. They had 19 and 21 points respectively. Los Angeles now is taking on the Kings again on Saturday.

LeBron James is on the injury report ahead of this matchup with an illness and left foot injury management. James wants to play as many games as he possibly can, so he'll try his best to make sure that he's healthy for this matchup against a divisional foe.

James has been upgraded to probable for this one.

LeBron James (injury management) now probable Saturday.

— Underdog NBA (@Underdog__NBA) December 21, 2024

The Kings are 12th in the Western Conference standings at the moment, so they need this game even more than the Lakers do. They have to start making up some ground. Otherwise, they will be too far back to justify making a trade in order to make the playoffs this season.

The Lakers need to show that they have other players who can help carry the load. There will be games in the future that James and Davis miss, so they have to have some other guys step up. Austin Reaves is a player that they want to see take a bigger role on offense.

If the Lakers can find some other guys to help pick up that scoring load, the Lakers will be in a much better spot in the long run.

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