CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- LeBron James suffered a corneal abrasion of his right eye in the second half of the Cleveland Cavaliers' 112-105 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday that caused him to question his availability to play in Saturday's game against the Washington Wizards.
James was fouled by the Hornets' Jeremy Lamb with 31.2 seconds left in the third quarter while scoring an and-1 layup when the contact with his eye occurred. After covering his face and sitting on the floor beside the stanchion for several minutes, James signaled for a timeout and made his way to the bench to have his eye looked at by Cavs trainer Steve Spiro.
Following the timeout, James returned to the game and made the ensuing free throw. He went on to play the entire fourth quarter, scoring 10 of his 32 points to secure the victory.
After the game, James told reporters his vision was blurry in his right eye and he was attended to by the Hornets' team eye specialist.
James took another spill in the fourth, falling to the floor on his back from a foul by Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with 6:48 left.
"Just took a hard foul -- a hard fall, I'm sorry. And I just got up and made my free throws, I think I made them," said James, who went 1-for-2 from the line that possession but 14-for-16 for the game, representing a season high in free throw attempts. "I was just trying to put pressure on the rim, so, if coach decides to give me a game off, it's not because I'm resting. It's because I'm banged up."
Kevin Love suffered a corneal abrasion during the 2014-15 season with Cleveland that caused him to miss one game.
The last game James sat out, on the front end of a back-to-back last Saturday, caused shockwaves throughout the sport as it prompted NBA commissioner Adam Silver to issue a memo to all 30 teams that threatened significant penalties for resting players without merit.
Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said he would have to see how James, Love and Kyrie Irving feel before making a determination on their statuses for the Wizards game.
As for the win over the Hornets, Lue noted the amount of contact that went on.
"It was a physical game," he said. "That's the most I've ever seen LeBron hit the deck. He hit the deck a few times. It was a physical game. With these last 11 games, I think we're playing nine teams fighting for the playoffs or in the playoffs. This will be a good test for us going into the playoff stretch. It's good for us."
Irving echoed his coach, bracing for even more physical play.
"Well, I don't like anybody hitting my brother like that," Irving said of the blows James took. "But it's gearing up for playoff basketball. Some hits are definitely coming, some plays, some fights as you can see. So we just got to protect ourselves and protect our brothers if something happens like that. Obviously no one wants to get suspended but if it goes too far, as men we've got to protect our brothers."
James, who claimed he would "be all right" after sustaining the eye and back pains, credited his team for how they handled the Hornets.
"I liked our [disposition] tonight," James said. "We came in with a physical mindset and that eventually helped us win the game because we were just physical from the start all the way down to the finish."
