Angels — LeBron James The team announced, Friday, that it will not participate in the last two games of the Los Angeles Lakers this season due to pain in his left ankle.
The Lakers, who have already been eliminated from the championship-playing competition since Tuesday’s loss to the Phoenix Suns, ensured that the San Antonio Spurs would finish narrowly ahead of them. 10th place in the Western ConferenceOn Friday, the Oklahoma City Thunder hosts and concludes the season. On the road against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.
James has already missed five of the Lakers’ last six games since injuring his ankle against the New Orleans Pelicans on March 27.
James finished the season averaging 30.3 points, second in the league behind him Joel Embiid (30.4) of the Philadelphia 76ers, in 56 games. If the average Embiid drops below James when the Sixers finished their season, James will not be able to claim the title of leading scorer while inactive. A player must play at least 58 matches to be eligible for discrimination.
However, it was the 37-year-old’s most points since his third season in the league when he scored 31.4 points per game with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The average scoring is also the highest for a player in his 19th season.
Los Angeles was between 25 and 31 in games played by James, the first time since his rookie year with the Caves that his team finished under 0.500 in games played.
This is the second time in James’ four seasons with the Lakers that he finished the season out of the squad due to an injury while the team failed to make the playoffs.