LeBron James will not be with the Los Angeles Lakers when they hop on a plane to Salt Lake City, Utah ahead of their matchup with the Jazz on Friday, head coach Luke Walton announced at shootaround on Wednesday. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t play.
According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, Walton “did not rule out the possibility of James traveling to Utah on his own Friday for the Jazz game” if he’s medically cleared to play when he gets reevaluated on Friday morning.
This could mean that Walton and the training staff believe that James is close to being ready and that they’re just using Friday’s re-evaluation as a precautionary measure.