DENVER — LeBron James said after the Lakers’ 120-113 road loss to the Nuggets on Thursday night that his left elbow was “pretty sore” after his fall late in the game at Ball Arena, with the Lakers star adding that the injury is day-to-day.
The Lakers star, who was icing the elbow during his postgame media availability inside the visitor’s locker room, fell onto the court after Nuggets star Nikola Jokic made contact with him in the air while James made a layup to cut the Lakers’ deficit to 110-106 with just over four minutes left.
No foul was called, with James immediately grabbing at his left elbow and staying down on the court during the Nuggets’ ensuing possession.
“It’s the same s—, James said. “‘Marginal.’ It’s the same s—. It’s, it’s, it’s … whatever. That’s all they keep saying is, ‘marginal.’ I’m so f—— tired of that word.”
Reserve big man Jaxson Hayes subbed in for James once James got up and the Lakers called timeout with 3:58 left.
“It felt like one of those funny bone situations,” James said. “But like, super more intense.”
Mike Mancias, James’ longtime trainer and the Lakers’ athletic performance liaison, tended to James’ elbow while he was on the team’s bench after the timeout.
James subbed back in for Rui Hachimura with 2:05 remaining but wasn’t on the court for after-timeout play when Luka Dončić missed a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer with 20 seconds left, with the Nuggets maintaining a 116-111 lead.
“It was bothering [him] enough that he didn’t feel comfortable doing the inbound pass when we called timeout down five,” Redick said. “So we put Luke [Kennard] in for him. He’s got ice on it. Get it looked at.”
The Lakers next will host the Pacers on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena, with James’ status up in the air.
“We’ll see what happens over the next couple days,” James said. “Hopefully I’ll wake up [on 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.”
