The night loses a little juice without scoring leader LeBron James.
Lakers say LeBron James (knee) is out tonight vs. 76ers.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 23, 2022
Los Angeles Lakers’ superstar LeBron James has spent plenty of time on the injury report recently listed as “questionable.” So we didn’t give much thought to the idea he might not play Wednesday. But alas, Shams Charania of The Athletic broke the news that The King is out due to a knee injury.
The Sixers on the other hand, have a clean bill of health. Joel Embiid and James Harden got a rest game vs. the Miami Heat Monday. And sophomore standout Tyrese Maxey was able to lead the way to a thrilling upset home win over Jimmy Butler and co. It reminded us of the game Maxey out dueled Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies sans Joel back in Jan.
Doc Rivers group will now be at full strength looking to make it two in a row in their first of three games on this West Coast road trip.
No Sixers are listed on the injury report currently (apart from G League assignments). LeBron is questionable with ankle soreness but he’ll almost certainly play. Lakers just have a weird habit of listing him as questionable every game.
— Harrison G. (@Harrison_Grimm) March 23, 2022
Anthony Davis is out as well so the Sixers will look to slow down Russell Wesbtrook, Malik Monk and a familiar face in Dwight Howard.
Philadelphia sits now in third place in the Eastern Conference at 44-27, trailing the first place Miami Heat by 2.5 games. The Los Angeles Lakers are 31-41 so they’ll be at a pretty big disadvantage now without LeBron. James is averaging a ludicrous 30 points per game in his age 37 season. That’s not a typo. He’s battling with Embiid (29.8 points per game) and Giannis (29.7) for this season’s scoring title. King James won’t get the chance to gain ground on The Process now.