Heat forward says it affected his game against the Clippers.
Miami Heat star LeBron James has revealed that he is currently battling lower back soreness which has bothered him for the past “couple” of weeks.
During the win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night, the 28-year-old was seen wearing a heat pack around his body and lying down after playing a significant part of the game at the AA Arena.
The soreness clearly bothered him as he scored a season-low 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field along with six assists and four turnovers.
However, James insists that if the injury was bad enough and that he felt he couldn’t help his team then he would take time out and rest it.
“If I can’t get out of bed, I can’t show up here,” James said. “If I can’t give enough to help us be successful, then I won’t play. That’s the one thing I know I will do, but it wasn’t bad enough [on Thursday] to the point where I couldn’t help,” he said according to ESPN.
“It ain’t a great feeling, I’ll tell you that, especially at night when I’m trying to sleep.”
Miami have now won three consecutive games to improve their season record to 4-2 but coach Erik Spoelstra did concede that his most influential player wasn’t at his best.
Nevertheless, James is confident that he can manage the soreness as it is an issue that he has had a number of times over the years and feels he knows the best way to get back to his normal self.
The two-time NBA champion is currently averaging 25.6 points, 8.0 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game while shooting 58 per cent from the field.
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