The Lakers have officially announced that James will miss the rest of the season due to an ankle injury.
At present, the Lakers have two games left in the regular season this season, against the Thunder and Nuggets. It also means that James will not return in these two games due to injury.
James' absence from the remaining games is no surprise. Because the Lakers have missed the playoffs this season, which also makes their remaining games meaningless, James obviously does not need to return to the game.
James has missed three games in a row, including losing to the Suns for the first game since the playoffs. The last time he played was against the Pelicans on April 2. Before that game, James had also missed three games intermittently.
As a result, James' appearances this season will be fixed at 56, which is much more than last season's 45, but still 11 fewer than the 2019-20 championship season, or even only one more than the 2018-19 season. The 2018-19 season was James' first season with the Lakers, when he missed a large number of games due to a groin injury.
This season, James averaged 30.3 points per game, a rather outstanding performance, the third time in his career that he averaged 30+ per game in the regular season and his highest average since the 2005-06 season (31.4 points). Currently, James is no. 2 in the league on the scoring list this season, behind Embiid of Philadelphia, durant of the Nets is no. 3, alphabet brother of the Bucks is no. 4, and Doncic of the Lone Rangers is no. 5.