LeBron James sprained his ankle when the Miami Heat faced the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night in Los Angeles. He did not play in Miami's game against Denver on Thursday.
So will he play tonight at the United Center, the Heat's only regular season visit to Chicago? And if so, how effective will he be? Some tickets for this game have been going on StubHub for more than the Bears' playoff game tomorrow against the Seahawks.
This will be a good test for the Bulls. Much as many of us have loved to hate James and what he and Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade did to make their own All-Star team, the Heat has the most road wins in the NBA (15). But, the Bulls are tied for the second-most home wins in the league (17). Both Derrick Rose and Luol Deng told the Sun-Times how much they were looking forward to the game:
"It’s an exciting game," guard Derrick Rose said. "They’re gonna challenge us in so many ways, especially on [isolations], running the ball up the floor and just having great players. We’re gonna see just how good our defense is."
"As a team, we look forward to playing those teams," forward Luol Deng said. "Miami’s playing well, and we want to see how we do against them. Miami’s up there with Boston, Orlando, all those teams."
It's also a tough choice for TV watchers, as you'll have to decide between this game, the NFL playoffs between the Packers and Falcons, or the Blackhawks, all starting at the same time. Or do a lot of channel-flipping.
Tonight's game begins at 7 p.m. CST and will be televised on WGN (Chicago only). It's also available nationally on NBA-TV.