James has not featured since suffering a groin injury in the Lakers’ win over the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day, missing his team’s last 17 games.
The Lakers are 6-11 in his absence and have fallen down to ninth spot in the Western Conference standings, two games behind the Clippers ahead of the meeting between the teams.
However, the three-time NBA champion participated in the scrimmage portion of Wednesday’s practice and will be evaluated again before Thursday, though he is officially ruled as “out” for now.
Head coach Luke Walton expects James to miss the Lakers’ next game, meaning he could instead make his comeback against the Warriors on Saturday.
“He looked good today,” Walton told the media after practice. “He did everything that we had on the schedule.
“He looked good two days ago in practice [too], so we’ll see how he feels tomorrow. We’ll take it from there. We’ll keep prepping as if he’s not going to play, and hope that he’s healthy enough to start.”
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