LeBron James questionable for Wednesday, minutes | College News

The largest information Tuesday with the Lakers was in regards to the health of LeBron James and the elevated minutes for Luka Doncic.

James, who didn’t play in Sunday’s All-Star Game in San Francisco as a result of of lingering ankle and foot discomfort, has been listed as questionable for the Lakers recreation towards Charlotte on Wednesday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

“It’s something that we managed all year and it was sore over the weekend,” Lakers coach JJ Redick stated after follow Tuesday. “He was able to do most of practice today. But, like it’s been all year, like it’s a day-to-day thing. It’s just something that we’ve had to manage and we’ll continue to manage throughout the rest of the year.”

James, 40 and a 22-year veteran, is averaging 24.3 factors per recreation, 9.0 assists and seven.7 rebounds over 34.5 minutes per recreation. He is capturing 51.6% from the sector and 39.5% from three-point vary. He has performed in 48 of the Lakers’ 52 video games earlier than the All-Star break.

In the 2 video games Doncic has performed in with the Lakers since being acquired in a blockbuster deal from the Dallas Mavericks that was headlined by Anthony Davis, he has averaged 23.5 minutes per recreation.

Both video games had been towards the Utah Jazz and each had been blowouts because the groups cut up.

But with six days off over the All-Star break, Redick stated Doncic shall be advantageous for an elevated load.

“His minutes will be up tomorrow,” Redick stated. “I don’t think there is going to be any sort of restrictions going forward.”

Challenging schedule

The Lakers open play after the All-Star break towards Charlotte on Wednesday evening in a make-up recreation from a Jan. 9 postponement as a result of of the wildfires within the Los Angeles space.

Then the Lakers play on Thursday evening in Portland and at Denver on Saturday.

The Lakers could have two days off after the Nuggets recreation after which play eight video games over 14 days, and simply two of the opponents are beneath .500. They have one other set of back-to-back video games during that stretch.

“The next month is going to be a huge challenge for us,” Redick stated. “It’s the quality of opponent, but it’s also just the schedule in general. It’s going to be difficult. We’ve got to fight through it as a group.”

The Lakers are 32-20 and at present the fifth seed within the aggressive Western Conference.

They had received 12 of their final 15 video games heading into the break.

Redick stated they acquired ready for the second half of the season with a good follow Tuesday.

“A lot of it was just getting up and down the court,” Redick stated. “We did some execution stuff. Still trying to get the new guys acclimated to different things. But mostly just about guys getting up and down, reacclimating them to play at a high level.”