LOS ANGELES _ LeBron James has been cleared to increase "on-court functional basketball movements" and will be re-evaluated next Wednesday, the Lakers announced on Thursday.
James was examined by the Lakers' medical team and physicians on Wednesday. He had already been ruled out of games through this weekend.
The Lakers play the Jazz in Utah on Friday before home games against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday and the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday.
The Lakers' schedule gets brutal after that, with road games against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Jan. 17 and the Houston Rockets on Jan. 19 before a home game against the Golden State Warriors on Jan. 21.
James and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks continue to lead NBA All-Star voting, the league announced Thursday.
James leads all players with 2,779,812 votes, while Antetokounmpo leads the Eastern Conference with 2,670,816. James was the leading vote-getter in the first round of balloting with 1,083,363 and Antetokounmpo was second overall at 991,561.
Fan balloting for the game, which will be played Feb. 17 at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C., accounts for 50 percent of the voting for the starters. Voting by current players and a media panel account for another 25 percent each.
The leading vote-getter in each conference will become a captain and select their team from a pool of All-Star starters and reserves. The top five vote-getters in each conference _ two from the backcourt and three from the frontcourt _ will comprise the starters and be drafted in rounds one through four. The pool of reserves will then be selected.
The starters will be announced on Jan. 24 while the reserves and coaches will be announced on Jan. 31, each during a TNT broadcast.
