LeBron James questionable vs. Heat with left ankle soreness

LeBron James is listed as questionable for Wednesday’s game against the Heat with left ankle soreness. He is the only Laker listed as questionable, while Juan Toscano-Anderson is available after an extended absence with his own ankle injury.

So far this season, LeBron James has played one back-to-back and sat out three of them, including the two most recent ones. The lone back-to-back he took part in came when the Lakers played consecutive games in San Antonio. Outside of that, LeBron has sat out the second night of every other back-to-back this season.

He has dealt with a left ankle injury throughout the season after turning it a couple of different times in the year. Each of the last two back-to-backs that he’s missed were due to the same left ankle injury, so it is a recurring injury to some degree. The Lakers, though, have prioritized sitting LeBron in back-to-backs to keep him available later in the season, so it wouldn’t be a shock if he sits again on Wednesday.

The obvious caveat to that is the Lakers can ill afford to have him sit with Anthony Davis out and the team racking up losses. Tuesday’s win in Orlando snapped a four-game losing streak and the Lakers are still on the outside looking in at the play-in race, making it somewhat tougher to keep sitting LeBron.

The other notable takeaway from the injury report is the return of JTA after missing 10 games with his own sprained ankle. Being available won’t necessarily mean that he re-enters the rotation as JTA was sparingly used in the weeks leading up to his injury, which came in a Toronto game that saw multiple Lakers sit out.

Both Austin Reaves and Dennis Schröder have appeared on the injury report in recent contests with the former missing a couple of games due to a sprained ankle, but both have been active and available the last three games.

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