{"id":703230,"date":"2026-04-07T12:14:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703230\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T12:14:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:14:27","slug":"is-lebron-james-playing-tonight-injury-update-betting-impact-for-lakers-vs-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703230\/","title":{"rendered":"Is LeBron James Playing Tonight? (Injury Update, Betting Impact for Lakers vs. Thunder)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7b\">The injury bug has crushed the Los Angeles Lakers late in the 2025-26 regular season, as both Luka Doncic (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique) are sidelined for multiple weeks after getting injured against the Oklahoma City Thunder last week.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7e\">Now, the Lakers are extremely short-handed heading into Tuesday&#8217;s matchup with the Thunder, and they&#8217;ve decided to list LeBron James (foot) on the injury report as questionable. James played in the Lakers&#8217; loss against OKC and had a big game in Sunday&#8217;s loss to the Dallas Mavericks. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">However, with just four games left in the regular season, L.A. may decide not to push the 41-year-old against the defending champs on Tuesday night. Oddsmakers seem to think that James could sit out this game, as L.A. is a 16.5-point home underdog in the latest odds at <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/4kJjtBu\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DraftKings<\/a>. OKC beat the Lakers by 43 points last week, and it will be heavily favored regardless of James&#8217; status on Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7k\">The Lakers face the Thunder, Golden State, Phoenix (the second night of a back-to-back) and Utah to close out the regular season. The Lakers have a real chance to win those last three games, and the team may give James Tuesday off so he&#8217;s able to play in both ends of the back-to-back on Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7n\">Los Angeles currently holds the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference, but it could fall all the way to the No. 5 spot depending up on the results of the final games of the regular season. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7q\">James has played in a few back-to-backs this season, and he&#8217;s only missed three games (all in early March) since the All-Star break. Still, the latest betting odds are a sign that the Lakers will be extremely undermanned, as OKC is favored by 16.5 even with star Jalen Williams (injury management) already ruled out on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7t\">This story will be updated with James&#8217; status ahead of Tuesday&#8217;s game between the Lakers and Thunder. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7y\">Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"81\">If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"84\">Claim the latest\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/betting\/sportsbook-promos\/draftkings-promo-code\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DraftKings promo code<\/a>\u00a0offer today. Sign up and win your first $5 bet to get\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/4kJjtBu\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$200 in bonus bets instantly.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The injury bug has crushed the Los Angeles Lakers late in the 2025-26 regular season, as both Luka&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-703230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116363374346810632","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}