LeBron James questionable, Anthony Davis probable vs. Kings

UPDATE: With the Lakers playing on the second night of a back-to-back and LeBron James dealing with a left calf injury along with Anthony Davis still having issues with his left hip, their availability for Wednesday’s matchup was, naturally, up in the air. Now we have an update with the Lakers listing James as questionable and Davis as probable for the Lakers matchup versus the Sacramento Kings.

Both played in Tuesday’s victory against the Memphis Grizzlies and below you will find the original story and previous updates on Lakers injuries heading into these back-to-back games.

After missing Sunday’s game against the Blazers, the Lakers will welcome back LeBron James for Tuesday’s In-Season Tournament game against the Grizzlies.

The Lakers had to go through the same dance again on Tuesday with LeBron as they did on Sunday as he was originally listed as questionable on the injury report heading into the contest.

Based on Ham’s comments prior to the game, it wouldn’t be a surprise if LeBron missed Tuesday’s game as well. The Lakers have been cautious about injuries all season and this screams of a situation they’ll do that once again.

Original story follows.

While LeBron James looked hardly bothered after banging legs with Kevin Durant during the first quarter of Friday’s game against the Suns, it was an injury that certainly lingered.

After discussing how it was hurting postgame, it probably should have come as little surprise that he did not play in Sunday’s game against the Blazers. Fairly early in the day, LeBron was ruled out due to the left calf contusion.

Before the game, head coach Darvin Ham talked about LeBron’s injury and his decision to sit him.

“He had some issues with that shin,” Ham said. “Got kneed in the last game so just being proactive. No reason to run him into the ground this early. Saw an opportunity where he can get some treatment and not force it but he’s day-to-day and definitely won’t be in tonight.”

Ham would also note that, while it was not “anything major, major” in terms of its severity, it was causing LeBron discomfort. And with the Lakers early in the season, the team was focused on having LeBron ready for the “next stretches of games beyond this one.”

If you’re reading between the lines, then that doesn’t feel like an injury LeBron is going to immediately return from. Clearly, it’s not a super bad injury as LeBron played effectively through it.

But the Lakers are teetering in their current position of wanting to remain proactive and safe with injuries and falling too far behind in the Western Conference and having to play catch-up once again, similar to last season.

It sure would be nice, though, if the Lakers could just simply get healthy and these off nights for LeBron are purely rest.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.