LeBron James has begun on court activity and a "gradual movement progression," the Los Angeles Lakers announced Thursday.
According to ESPN, there's optimism James could return to play "a few" games in the final week of the regular season. Lakers coach Darvin Ham echoed that recently, telling reporters Sunday, "We anticipate him coming back at some point."
James has missed the Lakers' last 12 games after suffering a right foot tendon injury during a game against the Dallas Mavericks on Feb. 26.
During a timeout Wednesday, James, wearing street clothes, shot around under the basket and appeared to move around well.
The Lakers have nine games remaining. They're currently in 10th place in the Western Conference with a record of 36-37, two games behind the fifth-place Los Angeles Clippers. If the season ended today, they'd make the play-in tournament and need to win two play-in games to make the playoffs.
Without James, the Lakers have gone 7-5. They've won two in a row, including an important 122-111 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday.
In an interesting twist Thursday, James took to Twitter to provide more clarity on his current status, refuting several reports of a target date for his return.
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James is averaging 29.5 points on 50.1% shooting, 8.4 rebounds and 6.9 assists this season. The four-time champion and four-time MVP has been to 10 NBA Finals and became the league’s all-time leading scorer in February, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record of 38,387 points.
When asked before Wednesday’s game how much James has helped coach from the bench during his absence, Ham said he has been very vocal.
"He’s thrown me a couple of nice ATOs we’ve drawn up in the huddle," Ham said. "It’s been great. He’s just being engaged and really talking through the mentality that time is of the essence. Only 10 games left, and we really gotta push through and make this thing happen. We miss his presence at shootaround, because he’s not really physically able to participate. Just his presence talking to the guys, giving them confidence, building them up and helping us out with things we see as a coaching staff."
Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.
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