Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James will not play Saturday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the team confirmed. Shams Charania of The Athletic first reported that James was out with a cold.
Update: Anthony Davis is out for tonight's game. https://t.co/36daKZ09Fc
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) January 12, 2020
LeBron played 32 minutes Friday night in the Lakers’ convincing 129-114 win over the suddenly reeling Mavericks, scoring 35 points and grabbing 16 rebounds.
Once again a Kia MVP candidate, James is averaging 25.4 points, a league-leading 10.7 assists and 8.7 rebounds and has helped the Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference. On Friday, he moved into sole possession of fourth place on the all-time field goals made leaderboard, edging past Michael Jordan. A third-quarter layup was the 12,193rd bucket of his 17-year career.
The Lakers, riding a seven-game winning streak, will be without big man Anthony Davis on Saturday as well. Davis missed Friday’s game after he suffered a bruised tailbone from a nasty fall in Tuesday’s win over the New York Knicks. Vogel said Davis, who leads the Lakers with 27.1 points per game, would be a game-time decision, and the team later announced Davis would miss his second straight game.
Vogel also said guard Danny Green will sit out with a sore right hip. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Rajon Rondo will start in the slots vacated by James and Green.
The short-handed Lakers face a Thunder team that has won 11 of 13 games and rolled past the Houston Rockets on Thursday night.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
