Lakers’ LeBron James day-to-day after missing practice

Lakers star LeBron James remains day to day after sitting out practice Monday, according to coach JJ Redick.

James missed Los Angeles’ past two games, victories over the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks, while dealing with a left elbow contusion and ongoing arthritis in his left foot.

The elbow injury occurred during Thursday’s loss to the Denver Nuggets.

Per ESPN, James did go through an on-court workout Sunday morning, but the foot did not respond well afterward, leading the team to hold him out.

The two missed games marked the first time James has sat out back-to-back contests since returning from sciatica earlier this season.

Despite the recent absence, the 41 year old continues to produce. He is averaging 21.4 points on 50.4 percent shooting, along with seven assists, 5.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals across 44 appearances.

James was still present Monday for the team’s film session, where the focus turned to defense.

“Sometimes, when you’re winning you can forget to clean up stuff,” Redick said, via Khobi Price of the California Post. “So today was very much a clean up day for some stuff defensively that we’ve had a little slippage on.”

Forward Jake LaRavia said the Lakers have already shown defensive improvement over the past several weeks, something the team reinforced while reviewing Sunday’s win over the Knicks.

“We talked about it in the film, the last seven to 10 games, our defense has been really good,” LaRavia said. “Our physicality has been really good from the jump.”

The Lakers rank 12th in defensive rating over the past 10 games and 14th since mid-January, a notable improvement after struggling on that end earlier in the season.

“I couldn’t tell you exactly why,” LaRavia said. “But it’s a good time to do it.”