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Kyle Kuzma will miss his third game in a row when the Los Angeles Lakers take on the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday, according to the team’s injury report. LeBron James is listed as questionable for the game, while Anthony Davis, Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley are all listed as “probable” on the injury report.
Here is the full Lakers’ status report:
LeBron is questionable, and THT is with the South Bay Lakers. Here is the rest of your injury report: pic.twitter.com/g1wN631XjS
— Harrison Faigen (@hmfaigen) December 15, 2019
In NBA injury parlance, “probable” essentially means that a player will probably play, while “questionable” generally (but not always) means that it’s about 50/50. “Out” means, well, out.
James’ elbow injury appeared to happen on Friday night against the Miami Heat, and according to Tania Ganguli of the L.A. Times, the training staff was looking at it after the game:
Something seemed to be amiss with LeBron's right elbow. He had his trainer Mike Mancias take a look at it right after the buzzer and was icing it postgame. "I mean, it's fine, I'm icing it right now," he said. "We'll see what happens."
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) December 14, 2019
However, it sounds like James himself plans to play:
LeBron James, speaking with @Rachel__Nichols at halftime of his son’s game in Ohio twice mentioned how he plans to play Sunday against Atlanta. So the elbow, just as he described it last night, appears to be fine.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 15, 2019
If James does miss the game, it will be his first absence of the season.
As far as Kuzma goes, the Lakers previously indicated that they would continue to be patient with his progress, health-wise. Lakers Head Coach Frank Vogel told reporters on Friday that Kuzma “wasn’t getting over the hump of it getting better while playing on it, so we’re gonna take as long as we need to make sure it gets right.”
Kuzma’s ankle sprain is just one of a few issues he’s dealt with this season, as he missed all of training camp with a stress reaction in his foot, then sustained an eye contusion and was additionally one of several players to get sick in recent weeks as a bug made its way around the locker room. Given all of that, it’s understandable that he hasn’t quite looked like himself, and that the Lakers want to give him time to get to 100% (especially while they’re winning anyway).
Davis’ shoulder continues to be worth monitoring, but he’s been listed with this injury several times and has only missed one game.
Bradley and Rondo have both missed games with their listed maladies, but based on their “probable” designation, it’s likely they can be expected to give it a go on Sunday.
The Lakers tip-off against the Hawks at 3:00 p.m. PST, and the game will be televised locally on Spectrum SportsNet.
For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.