Eastern Conference champions Cleveland Cavaliers expect LeBron James to play in the regular-season opener Tuesday despite his recent back problems, Yahoo’s Marc Spears reported recently.
The 30-year-old James is entering his 13th NBA season and has played a ridiculous amount of minutes (39.1 per contest) over 911 career regular-season games. He received an anti-inflammatory injection in his back on Oct. 13 and has played in only two preseason games. According to Spears’ sources, James has been practicing well and he’s making improvements.
LeBron hasn’t guaranteed that he’ll play in the initial game, but he says the team has been preparing for this.
It was something that was already planned from the medical staff to the front office to the coaching staff to myself that we would do this, James said. When they say, ‘rest,’ it’s not like I’ve just been sitting on my ass for a week and a half. Because I haven’t.
The Cavaliers look to get their team healthy so their stars can mesh and power Cleveland to an NBA championship this season. The Bulls hope Fred Hoiberg’s new system will bring the most of their talents, and finally beat LeBron in the playoffs.
