LeBron James upgraded on Lakers injury report, will try to return vs. Bulls

Mar 26, 2023 - 4:04 PM

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LeBron James originally suffered a foot tendon injury on Feb. 26, and has missed all 13 games since then, being listed as “out” for all of them outright. But on the Lakers injury report the team submitted ahead of their matchup vs. the Chicago Bulls on Sunday, James has been upgraded twice now, first being listed as “doubtful” with the same “right foot soreness” the organization has been holding him out with, and then upgraded to “questionable” a few hours before tip-off.

And not to contradict LeBron’s own wording about speaking for himself earlier this week, but Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports that James will test out the foot pregame with the goal of making his return vs. the Bulls:

As beat reporter Kyle Goon of the O.C. Register noted on Saturday, these quick, successive upgrades within 24 hours before a game have very often been the signal that James is about to make his return to the lineup during his Lakers tenure:

Still, in most cases this designation means exactly what it sounds like: That it is “questionable” a player will play, but theoretically possible, so don’t necessarily expect James back in uniform on Sunday if warmups don’t go as he hopes. But the team wouldn’t have made these two changes on their official injury updates if he wasn’t at least getting tangibly closer to a return to the floor, so this progress certainly bears monitoring.

The Lakers will tip off against the Bulls on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. PT, and the matchup will be televised locally on Spectrum SportsNet. We will keep updating this story with the latest news on if James will suit up for that one or not as it continues to trickle out.

You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.