Los Angeles Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis will both play against the LA Clippers on Christmas Day (8 ET, ABC), coach Frank Vogel confirmed before the game.
Both players were initially listed as questionable by the Lakers due to recent injuries.
James missed his first game of the season on Sunday due to a thoracic muscle strain he sustained against the Indiana Pacers last Tuesday. He played through the injury against the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday.
Davis is hampered by a knee injury he suffered against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday. Davis returned to the game after he fell awkwardly on his knee and finished with 32 points and 11 rebounds. After the game, he said he would “see how it feels tomorrow”, but that he “should have plenty of time to get it right” before Christmas.
.@AntDavis23 on how he's feeling after tweaking his knee in tonight's game and the #Lakers getting back to focusing on the defensive details moving forward. pic.twitter.com/JxpE6KbnJS
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) December 23, 2019
Here’s more from Wojnarowski and McMenamin on the Lakers’ decision to hold an impromptu practice on Tuesday:
The Lakers, who recently completed a stint of 12 out of 15 games on the road, practiced Monday, but both James and Davis were held out of on-court participation.
With an early 5 p.m. PT tip time on Christmas making it too much of a time crunch to hold a morning shootaround on the day of, the two Lakers leaders brought the group in on Tuesday so they could join their teammates in the walk-through to prepare for the Clippers.
The Lakers (24-6) are riding a season-long 3-game losing streak after Sunday’s loss to the Nuggets. Despite the tough stretch, they still hold a 3.0 game lead over Denver for the top seed in the Western Conference standings.
