LOS ANGELES – With a week-and-a-half All-Star break behind him to rest his 36-year-old legs, LeBron James said he’s locked up for home while the Los Angeles Lakers try to defend themselves the title.
“The time has come,” James told reporters at a video conference Thursday before the Lakers’ first practice at the end of the break. “It’s time to get ready and make that change, the last round of the postseason. … I’m not looking ahead and saying, ‘OK, let’s get this out, let’s get this out.’ “
– No, it’s time for me.
The 18-year-old veteran played his last LA game before the break – a 123-120 loss to the Sacramento Kings on the second night of a back-to-back set – to rest his left ankle. It was the only game that James missed this season, as he averaged 25.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 7.8 assists to put his name in the MVP conversation.
Between the absence of the Kings game and the break, James will have 10 days off to enter Friday’s home game against the Indiana Pacers – except for the 13 minutes he played in the All-Star Game before the second half.
“Somehow I use the first half of the season as being in 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and in the second half being more like 4th, 5th, 6th, and when the playoffs start, you’re in 7,” James said. “And that’s how I’ve always adapted in the last few years of my career, really growing more and more, as the months go by, as the games continue to enter the playoffs.”
However, a few more Lakers players – Anthony Davis and Marc Gasol – remain stuck in neutrality.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel said Davis, who has been sidelined with tendinosis and a calf strain on his right leg since Feb. 14, will not play against the Pacers, but will be reevaluated by team doctors on the arena Friday night.
Davis lifted weights at the Lakers training facility on Thursday, but did not participate in group training with the team, Vogel said.
LA has only gone 3-7 since Davis came out, including the loss to Denver on February 14, when Davis made a mistake on his right foot and did not play in the second half.
Gasol will miss the third game in a row due to the league’s health and safety protocols. Vogel said the Lakers “don’t really have a timeline” for when Gasol could return.
Third-year striker Kostas Antetokounmpo is also against the Pacers because of health and safety protocols, according to the team.
In Gasol’s absence, LA will take a look at the Damian Jones Center, which was signed on Thursday for a second 10-day contract. Jones totaled 12 points, 4 rebounds and 4 blocks in 30 minutes combined in three appearances before the break.
“I want to see more of what he did,” Vogel said of Jones. “We thought he played well for us. He plays the role of a lobe threat. Don’t try to play off this offensive line.
“To be a screen and a rebound and a lob threatens offensively and defensively, to be able to man in the middle, to be a blocker of shots, to play in our pick-and-roll covers and obviously to lift the ball and the match with the bigger centers of other teams is what I asked for last week. We thought he did well and we will continue to look at this for the next 10 days. “