Lakers' LeBron James Could Play vs. Pacers amid Ankle Injury Recovery, Vogel Says

The Los Angeles Lakers are hoping to have LeBron James back for Saturday's game against the Indiana Pacers.

Head coach Frank Vogel told reporters James has "a chance" to play after participating in Friday's practice. He will be listed as questionable.

James sprained his ankle March 20 against the Atlanta Hawks. After sitting out 20 games, he returned to the lineup April 30 against the Sacramento Kings.

While he played well in two appearances with 17.5 points on 52.2 percent shooting, 7.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists, he told reporters after his second game back that his ankle was still causing him problems.

"I don't want to say I came back too early, but at the end of the day, I had to test it out and see where I was at," James said.

James planned to return for Wednesday's matchup with the Houston Rockets, but the four-time NBA MVP tweeted hours before tipoff that he wouldn't be in the lineup.

The Lakers finish the regular season with a back-to-back against the Pacers on Saturday and New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday.

Los Angeles (40-30) sits in the No. 7 spot in the Western Conference standings. The reigning NBA champions could climb as high as No. 5 and avoid the play-in tournament, but they would need to finish with a better record than the Dallas Mavericks (41-29) and Portland Trail Blazers (41-30) since both teams own the tiebreaker based on head-to-head matchups.