Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is nursing an elbow injury after banging it in the fourth quarter of Thursday's loss to the Denver Nuggets and has been ruled out for Friday's game against the Indiana Pacers, per ESPN's Dave McMenamin.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick later told reporters that James could be available for Sunday's game against the New York Knicks:
"It's pretty sore right now," James told reporters of the injury on Friday. "It felt like one of those funny bone situations, but like, super more intense."
"We'll see what happens over the next couple of days," James added. "Hopefully, I'll wake up [Friday] and it doesn't feel too much worse than it is now. Or, if it feels better, that would be great. So, it's day-to-day, we'll see what happens."
Injuries have been an unfortunate theme for James' 23rd season.
James missed all of the Lakers' preseason games and was absent from the first 14 regular-season contests because of sciatica. The 14 games missed to start the year meant James had already missed more games this season than he did in either of the previous two campaigns.
He's avoided any long-term absences since the early one, though. His latest ailment was left foot arthritis, which forced him to miss his 18th game of the year, thus making him ineligible for NBA awards.
While Father Time has started to take a toll on James' body, he's remained impactful when healthy. The 41-year-old is putting up 21.6 points, 7.0 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game, serving as a strong second option to Luka Dončić.
The Lakers have also remained firmly in the playoff hunt as they sit in sixth place in the Western Conference at 37-25.
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