LeBron James reportedly expected to return to court for Lakers on Friday vs. Spurs

LeBron James reportedly looks set to finally rejoin the Lakers on the court after missing over two weeks with an adductor strain. A report during Tuesday’s broadcast of the Lakers-Suns game from Chris Haynes indicated that James was eyeing Friday as his return date.

Friday would mark 16 days since James limped off the court against the Clippers in the fourth quarter after suffering the injury. In his absence, the Lakers have gone 3-2 with wins over the Nets, Pistons and Spurs and losses to the Kings and Phoenix.

The most important development during James’ absence, though, has been Anthony Davis’ ascension back to one of the best players in the league. The Lakers have three wins in the span without James largely because of a historical stretch of games from AD.

The challenge for the Lakers now will be reintegrating James into the lineup while keeping Davis performing at the high level he’s reached. It’ll be the latest tough challenge for Darvin Ham in a season already full of them.

How much James will play upon his return will be another question. The Lakers have a back-to-back on Friday and Saturday, but both games are in San Antonio. The team will then return home next week for games against Indiana and Portland before a lengthy road trip.

This makes this current portion of the schedule a perfect time to welcome back in LeBron as the Spurs hardly presented a challenge to the Lakers sans LeBron earlier this week. If he can rejoin and get back up to speed and AD continues playing at a high level, the Lakers could potentially actually look like a decent NBA team night in and night out.

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