LeBron James could be back on the court as soon as this week

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James could return as soon as this Friday against the Boston Celtics, according to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski. 

After a series of successive losses, the Lakers finally get some good news this week: LeBron James could be back on the court as soon as Friday, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

James has been sidelined for the past two weeks with an abdominal strain, and hasn’t played a game since the Houston Rockets on Nov. 2. The ESPN update is uplifting, as there was a chance James could have been out four to eight weeks with this type of injury.

If James returns Friday, that would be Nov. 19, meaning 17 days and eight games played without the guy who brought a championship to Cleveland and Kyle Kuzma.

LeBron James could return as soon as this Friday against the Celtics

Sitting at No. 7 in the Western Conference with an 8-7 record, the LeBron-less Lakers have struggled without their centerpiece player.

Los Angeles has played seven games in this time span, winning three of them, but two of those wins were won in overtime.

The only dominating win the Lakers have had in that period was on Nov. 14 when they defeated the San Antonio Spurs 114-106.

James has even made it visibly clear that he is disappointed by his team’s performance, walking out of the Monday night Chicago Bulls game in an embarrassing 19-point loss at the hands of two former Lakers.

This season, LeBron has played in six of 15 games thus far. Of those six games, the first two were losses, but the rest were wins.

For a new team looking to improve chemistry, the wins were a promising sign that this team was coming together. Since then, the Lakers have been a roll of the dice when it comes to their chances of winning each game.

Through his six games, James has averaged 24.8 points per game, a 46.7 FG percentage, 5.5 rebounds and 7 assists. In his last game against the Rockets, James scored 30 points with 4 rebounds, 10 assists and 2 steals.

It’s a different Lakers team with LeBron on the court, and ideally, the Lakers will get to see that soon enough on their road trip to Boston.