{"id":508135,"date":"2026-03-06T23:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/508135\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T23:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:27:08","slug":"lakers-lebron-james-deandre-ayton-to-miss-game-vs-pacers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/508135\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers’ LeBron James, Deandre Ayton to miss game vs. Pacers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dave McMenaminMar 6, 2026, 04:56 PM ET<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN.
\nCovered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.<\/p>\n

Multiple Authors<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> will be without LeBron James<\/a> and two of their big men in Deandre Ayton<\/a> and Maxi Kleber<\/a> on Friday against the Indiana Pacers<\/a>, the team announced.<\/p>\n

James did not finish L.A.’s 120-113 loss<\/a> to the Denver Nuggets<\/a> on Thursday after sustaining a left elbow contusion late in the fourth quarter when absorbing contact from Nikola Jokic<\/a> and tumbling to the floor. James is also listed with left foot arthritis on the injury report.<\/p>\n

Ayton is out with left knee soreness. He played the first four and a half minutes Thursday before exiting the game because of his left knee and did not return.<\/p>\n

Kleber will miss his third straight game with a lumbar back strain, the team announced.<\/p>\n

Without Kleber and Ayton for most of Thursday, Lakers backup center Jaxson Hayes<\/a> shined with 19 points on 8-for-10 shooting and five rebounds against the Nuggets.<\/p>\n

Indiana (15-47) has the worst record in the Eastern Conference and has lost seven straight games coming into Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave McMenaminMar 6, 2026, 04:56 PM ET CloseLakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. Covered the Lakers and NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-508135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}