Bronny James missed Lakers’ summer league game due to knee swelling

While sitting the game out with swelling in his left knee, Los Angeles Lakers’ Bronny James stands in a team huddle at halftime against Golden State Warriors during an NBA summer league basketball game in San Francisco, Sunday, July 7, 2024. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

LOS ANGELES – Bronny James was held out of Sunday’s California Classic game in San Francisco for precautionary reasons due to some trace swelling in his left knee, but is expected to play in the Lakers’ summer league team’s final game in the tournament Wednesday.

“Taking it day-by-day, just being precautionary about it,” South Bay Lakers coach Dane Johnson, who is coaching the team, said after the 92-68 loss to the Golden State Warriors’ summer league team that dropped the team’s record to 0-2.

“The plan is for him to play (Wednesday).”

First-round draft choice Dalton Knecht led five Lakers in double figures with 12 points while forward Armel Traore added 11 in front of a crowd at Chase Center announced at 9,674. Traore is an undrafted rookie free agent from France whose signing to a two-way contract was announced Friday.

Guard Ethan Thompson scored 22 to lead Golden State (2-0) in scoring for the second consecutive game. The 25-year-old Thompson is a former standout at Bishop Montgomery High in Torrance who has played the past three seasons in the NBA G League following a three-season college career at Oregon State.

The game was played with four 10-minute quarters, two minutes less than usual.

James scored four points in 21 minutes, 43 seconds of play in his first game as a Laker, a 108-94 loss to the Sacramento Kings Saturday.

The second-round choice in last month’s draft and oldest son of LeBron James made 2 of 9 shots, including missing all three 3-point shots, missed both free throws, pulled down two rebounds and had two assists.

“Every first game that I step on the next level there’s always some butterflies in my stomach, but as soon as the ball tips and we go a couple times down it all goes away and I’m just playing basketball,” James said.

“It’s always going to be there but get through it.”

The elder James, training in Las Vegas with the US Olympic men’s basketball team, said before the completion of Saturday’s game his son’s summer statistics don’t matter.

“I just hope for (him to get) his feet wet in the NBA – the pace of the game, the speed of the game, the physicality of the game,” the elder James said. “But what he does in the California Classic and Summer League, it doesn’t matter if he plays well and it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t play well.

I just want him to continue to grow. Practices, film sessions, his individual workouts.”

Bronny James made himself eligible for the NBA draft after averaging 4.8 points per game in his lone season at USC. He played 490 minutes over 25 games with six starts for the Trojans. The 6-foot-2-inch, 210-pound guard missed the first eight games of the season while recovering from a medical procedure to treat a congenital heart defect. (CNS)