The Los Angeles Lakers have officially finished up their five-game road trip and are set to take on the Utah Jazz at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday.
Over the course of the road trip, we saw a few Lakers miss games due to injury. Austin Reaves missed a game against the Hawks, Rui Hachimura and Marcus Smart both missed the game against the Bucks, and LeBron James missed them all as he has with every game this season.
Throughout the road trip, however, Shams Charania gave out some very encouraging updates regarding the NBA’s all-time points leader.
James was consistently working out with the Lakers’ G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers, playing 5-on-5 and ramping up for his eventual season debut.
More: Lakers get most encouraging LeBron James news of the season
Today, Lakers head coach JJ Redick gave the media an injury update on LeBron James and others leading up to tomorrow’s game against the Jazz.
JJ Redick said that today was the Lakers’ first full practice of the entire year, where they’ve actually had all 14 players on the roster available. This makes the team’s 10-4 record even more impressive, given the lack of continuity.
In regards to the most recent scratches, Rui Hachimura and Marcus Smart, Redick shared that he expects both of them to play after missing the game in Milwaukee.
JJ Redick says it was the Lakers’ first full practice of the season with all 14 guys available. He says he expects Marcus Smart and Rui Hachimura, who missed the MIL game, to play vs. UTA. He said both LeBron James and Gabe Vincent are TBD for the Jazz game.
LeBron James practiced with the team for the first time all season, and for his status, Redick said that both he and guard Gabe Vincent are officially listed with “TBD” status for tomorrow night’s game.
Even though Lauri Markkanen has been playing out of his mind lately, Utah is a team I expect the Lakers to be able to handle without LeBron James, so don’t be surprised if the Lakers choose to be overly cautious and hold out The King until Sunday’s game against the same opponent in Utah.
However, we could very well see the first iteration of this year’s Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves, and LeBron James trio. Fingers crossed.
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RC Nazemi is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He began his career centered around the Los Angeles Lakers after studying Mass Communications and Media Studies at Arizona State University. He is now expanding his coverage across multiple teams and multiple sports.