LeBron James, Rui Hachimura return in Lakers’ home game vs. Bulls

LOS ANGELES — Starting forwards LeBron James and Rui Hachimura returned to the floor in Saturday’s home game against the Chicago Bulls.

LeBron James remained a gametime decision as of an hour before tipoff before being upgraded to available.

The 40-year-old four-time MVP missed the previous seven games because of a strained left groin injury he suffered late in the March 8 road loss to the Boston Celtics.

James averaged 25 points (51.7% from the field, 38.4% on 3-pointers), 8.5 assists and 8.2 rebounds in 58 games of 62 games before missing time because of the groin ailment.

He and Denver Nuggets reigning MVP center Nikola Jokic are the only players averaging at least 25 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

James was also consistently playing high-level defense before suffering the groin injury.

“And LeBron with his, I literally said to him during the San Antonio game [on Monday] during a timeout, I said, ‘you know what we miss? We miss your voice on the defensive end,’” Coach JJ Redick said of Wednesday’s home loss to the Denver Nuggets. “Our communication level has gone down significantly and talk is a contagious thing. And when one guy is consistently talking, it forces everybody else to.”

Hachimura missed 12 consecutive games of left patellar tendinopathy.

He hasn’t played since the Feb. 27 home win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Hachimura averaged 13.3 points (50.6% from the field, 41% on 3s) and 5.2 rebounds in 50 games (all starts).

“We missed him on both sides of the ball,” Redick said of Hachimura. “You can’t just pinpoint one thing. He’s a connective glue for our team on both sides, and a lot of that is because of his size, his switchability, his cutting, his spacing. He’s been one of our best guys, just in terms of getting out in transition and the beneficiary of our throw-aheads.”

The Lakers went 7-5 without Hachimura and 3-4 without James.

This included a 3-3 stretch of six games in eight days that concluded with Thursday’s blowout loss to the Milwaukee Bucks – a game Luka Doncic (sprained right ankle), Austin Reaves (sprained right ankle), Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle injury management) and Jarred Vanderbilt (strained right groin) also were unavailable for.

The Lakers entered the weekend No. 3 in the Western Conference standings, percentage points ahead of the No. 4 Denver Nuggets after their road loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday.

“It says a lot about the culture we’ve created as a group and the spirit of competition,” Redick said. “The response that we got after going 0-4 on the road trip, to come back home and win three very tough games in a very condensed stretch, just our culture is solid right now.

“And culture is a fickle thing and you got to water it every day and pay attention to it. But it says a lot about the group that they were able to just get through this, plow through this and compete at a high level.”

Doncic, Reaves, Finney-Smith and Vanderbilt were available against the Bulls after being listed as probable for the matchup, which is the final game of a five-game homestand before a four-game trip that starts against the Orlando Magic on Monday.

The Lakers started Doncic, Reaves, Finney-Smith, James and Jaxson Hayes against the Bulls.

Hachimura, who was on a playing time restriction of around 20-24 minutes, came off the bench for the first time this season.

The Lakers had their full rotation available for the first time since Feb. 27 win over the Timberwolves – the game Hachimura left nearly midway through because of the knee ailment.

“We just haven’t had a lot of time with our full team available,” Redick said pregame. “We’ve had to manage this all season long no matter which iteration of this team it’s been. So I’m excited for these last 13 games to build some continuity, build some chemistry, and hopefully the way we were playing prior to the Boston game, we can kind of get back to that.

“It may not be [Saturday], it may not be Monday, but we’re a good basketball team if we’re playing the way we played for that six, seven week stretch.”