In the days leading up to Sunday’s contest between the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls, it looked like LeBron James wasn’t that close to returning from a right foot tendon injury.
Reports surfaced that the Lakers were hoping he would return for a few games during the final week of the regular season, which would’ve been the first full week of April.
Buy Lakers TicketsInstead, James surprised many by returning to the lineup on Sunday — almost out of nowhere.
Other than some early careless turnovers that could probably be attributed to rust, he played fairly well, scoring an efficient 19 points to go along with eight rebounds and three assists in 30 minutes. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to supercharge his tea: It lost 118-108.
After the contest, James admitted he came back sooner rather than later because he sees an opportunity for the Lakers to bypass the play-in tournament and finish at least sixth in the Western Conference (h/t Sportskeeda).
"When the doctors told me I was healing faster than anybody before they've seen with the injury." @KingJames' response to when he knew he would return from his foot injury. pic.twitter.com/YU0nqhkobj
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 26, 2023
“They go 8-5 and now we’re sitting at a chance to be able to, ‘ To hell with the play-in, we actually can be a top-six seed,’ that definitely changed my mindset on me coming back and trying to be a part of this. … I don’t wanna say changed my mindset, it just enhanced what I was trying to as far as my workouts, as far as my treatment and everything.”
It looks like he wants to strike while the iron is hot rather than give himself more time to rest because of his team’s strong play without him.
After everyone was tight-lipped about the nature of his injury, the superstar admitted he had a torn tendon but that his doctors told him he healed “faster than anybody before they’ve seen with the injury.”
Assuming James doesn’t re-aggravate the injury, the Lakers can fully turn their attention to building chemistry with their new players and building momentum toward what they hope will be a postseason appearance.
