Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James to sit out Monday night to rest sore ankle, sources say
LeBron James will sit out the Los Angeles Lakers' game against the Denver Nuggets on Monday night at Staples Center to rest his right ankle, sources tell ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne.
James aggravated the ankle in the fourth quarter of Sunday's 121-114 loss to the Toronto Raptors at Staples Center. He was held out of the final 6 minutes, 42 seconds on Sunday after experiencing soreness in the ankle.
James will now have three days of rest before the Lakers' next game, against the LA Clippers on Thursday. He had missed six weeks with a high ankle sprain before returning Friday.
James, when asked after the Raptors game if he might have rushed his return, detailed how his ankle was feeling after playing on it for the first time in six weeks.
"You never know until you get out there because honestly some of the sharp pain that I'm feeling, or the pain that I'm feeling on the floor, I didn't have during my workouts, during my training," he said. "So the only way to test is to get out on the floor. For one, there ain't no damn practice time. It's not like when you get practice time you get 5-on-5, you get lives, this is not the season for it. We've known that since the beginning.
"The only opportunity for me to get some live was during the game. I don't want to say I came back too early, but at the end of the day I had to test it out and see where I was at."
James also said that whatever hopes the Lakers have at a repeat title will be tied to how healthy he can get before the postseason begins.
"It doesn't matter at the end of the day if I'm not 100% or close to 100%. It don't matter where we land [in terms of playoff seeding]," James said. "That's my mindset."
The Lakers have lost six of their past seven games. At 36-28, they have the same record as the Portland Trail Blazers, who are currently in the No. 7 spot in the Western Conference. The Lakers are in sixth only because they hold the tiebreaker with Portland from beating the Blazers on Feb. 26.
This season, being No. 7 doesn't guarantee a team a first-round playoff series. The NBA will hold a play-in tournament in which the Nos. 7 and 8 teams face off and the Nos. 9 and 10 teams also play. The winner of the 7-8 game advances to the first round, and the loser of the 7-8 game plays the winner of the 9-10 game to determine the final playoff berth in each conference.
ESPN's Dave McMenamin contributed to this report.
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