Lakers starLeBron James sat out of his third consecutive game on Tuesday night when the Lakers hosted the Timberwolvesat Crypto.com Arena, with the team ruling him out two hours before tipoff because of a right hip contusion and left foot arthritis.

The team originally listed James on the injury reportfor the Friday win over the PacersandSunday win over the Knicksbecause of the left foot ailment he’s continued to deal with and left elbow contusionhe suffered in Thursday’s road loss to the Nuggets.

The Lakers first listed James on the injury report because of the hip ailment on Monday evening, with coach JJ Redick saying ahead of the matchup against the Timberwolves that he suffered the injury against the Nuggets and started feeling it on Friday.

“He did his on-court shooting before our film and walkthrough [on Tuesday], and probably just needs a couple more days,” Redick said of James. “So, still day-to-day. Sometimes day-to-day means two days. Sometimes it can mean…five or six days. But he’s day-to-day.”

Sunday was the first time James missed consecutive games since making his season debut in mid-November after sitting out of the first 14 games of sciatica.

He’s averaging 21.4 points (50.4% shooting), seven assists, 5.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals in the 44 games he’s played this season.

The 41-year-old James hasn’t spoken with reporters since after the loss to the Nuggets. He was present for the Lakers’ film session on Monday.

James had played in 44 of 48 after making his season debut before sitting out of the last three games.

“We obviously want him in the lineup,” Redick said. “When we were kind of approaching this stretch and you see the six days in eight nights and two back-to-backs last week, you never know how his body is gonna respond to a game and how his foot’s gonna respond. So it’s not to say I expected him to miss a game. It’s just, it wouldn’t have surprised me if he needed a day or two to get his body right. The fact that he had the falls in Denver, he’s trying to ramp up. He wants to be out there and so do we and hopefully he’s back soon.”

The Lakers entered Tuesday with a 13-7 record in the games James didn’t play this season, including 9-2 in games Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves have played without James.

Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos