BROOKLYN — For New York basketball fans hoping to see LeBron James or Anthony Davis during the Los Angeles Lakers swing through the Big Apple, there still isn’t certainty over whether they’ll get to see either at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.
James and Davis missed Monday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets and it wasn’t clear if James was going to be in the lineup at the Garden for the second game of a back-to-back against the Knicks. James officially was sidelined by left ankle soreness on Monday as he chases the NBA’s all-time scoring record that has been held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar since he retired in 1989.
“Bron, just managing his foot,” Lakers head Darvin Ham said before Monday’s game. “He’s been experiencing some really significant soreness and so I thought it’d be a good idea to kind of ease off him a little bit. Let his body calm down a little bit, specifically his foot.”
Ham said that James would be reevaluated first thing on Tuesday morning to determine if he would play against the Knicks. When asked if there was any concern that the injury could keep him out for a longer period of time, Ham didn’t want to get ahead of himself.
“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. He’s out tonight for sure, but will we reevaluate him in the morning,” he said.
As far as Davis was concerned, the plan had always been for him not to play both games in a back to back. Davis is dealing with a right foot stress injury.
