LeBron James '50-50' to Make Lakers Return From Abdominal Injury vs. Celtics Friday

Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James reportedly has a "50-50 chance" to make his return from an abdominal injury in Friday night's road game against the Boston Celtics.

ESPN's Dave McMenamin reported the update, though the 17-time All-Star was noncommittal following the Lakers' 109-102 loss to the reigning NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday.

"I hope," James told ESPN about playing against the Celtics. "I hope."

The four-time MVP has sat out Los Angeles' last eight games while recovering from the injury. He last played in a Nov. 2 win over the Houston Rockets. He also sat out two games earlier in the season with an ankle injury, meaning he's played just six of the team's 16 games so far in 2021-22.

L.A., which owns an 8-8 record, is 4-6 when James is out of the lineup.

Lakers head coach Frank Vogel called the 36-year-old forward "day-to-day" but said he wouldn't be involved in the decision of whether he plays Friday against the Celtics.

"I'll leave that to the medical team," Vogel told McMenamin. "I know he did some work today. I haven't gotten the reports on how that went yet. But I'll leave that between him and the medical team to make the decision of when he's ready to go."

James has played up to his usual All-NBA standards when healthy, averaging 24.8 points, 7.0 assists, 5.5 rebounds, 2.8 threes and 2.3 steals. He was also playing 37 minutes per game, which marked his highest total since the 2016-17 campaign with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It wouldn't be a surprise if Vogel and Co. try to limit his minutes a little more, especially since offseason additions like Carmelo Anthony, Malik Monk and Wayne Ellington should now be up to full speed within the team's system.

The Lakers have enough talent on paper to make some serious noise this season, and Anthony Davis told McMenamin he's hoping the injuries eventually subside so that potential can show through.

"We put a team together, and we haven't seen it yet," Davis said. "Once we get everybody back, we can kind of see, to be honest. Until then, just got to fight with what we got."

If James isn't cleared to return Friday, his next chance to play would come Sunday against the Detroit Pistons.