The Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday listed LeBron James as questionable for their road game against the Philadelphia 76ers, while Luka Doncic has been cleared to play and Marcus Smart remains sidelined.
James is dealing with right sciatica and left foot joint arthritis. The 40-year-old forward did not appear in Friday’s loss to the Boston Celtics and has yet to play both ends of a back-to-back this season.
Doncic, who missed the first two stops of the trip in Toronto and Boston for personal reasons, rejoined the club after traveling to Slovenia for the birth of his second daughter. The All-NBA guard leads the league at 35.3 points per game along with 8.9 rebounds and 8.9 assists.
Smart is listed as out with a left lumbar muscle strain, an injury that has kept him off the floor since Nov. 25. The guard is shooting 25.4 percent from three but remains one of the team’s primary perimeter defenders.
Without Doncic and James on Friday, Austin Reaves scored 36 points, yet Los Angeles fell heavily to Boston as the Celtics connected on 24-of-45 three-point attempts. Two nights earlier, the Lakers edged the Toronto Raptors on a game-winning shot by Rui Hachimura.
Sunday’s contest at Wells Fargo Center is the final game of a three-game swing before the Lakers return to Los Angeles for an NBA In-Season Tournament quarterfinal against the San Antonio Spurs.
Source: LakersNation.com
