LOS ANGELES – With the week-and-a-half All-Star break behind him to let his 36-year-old legs rest, LeBron James has said he is locked up for the home stretch as the Los Angeles Lakers try to to defend their title.
“It’s time,” James told reporters during a video conference Thursday before the Lakers’ first practice since the break ended. “It’s time to be prepared and make the turnaround, the last round going into the post-season. … I do not want to look ahead and say, ‘OK, let’s take it down, take it out.’
“No, it’s time for me.”
The 18-year-old veteran put off LA’s last game before halftime – a 123-120 defeat to the Sacramento Kings on the second night of a rugby set – to rest his left ankle. It was the only game 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 missing the Kings game and halftime, James had ten days off on Friday’s home game against the Indiana Pacers – except for the 13 minutes he played in the All-Star game before he was sent off in the second half.
“I use similarly the first half of the season as being in gear 1, 2 and 3, and then being more than 4, 5, 6 in the second half, and when the playoffs start, you’re in 7,” Said James. “And it’s the way I’ve always adapted over the last few years of my career, and actually just get more and more, more and more as the months go on as the games go into the playoffs.”
However, a few other Lakers starters – Anthony Davis and Marc Gasol – remain in neutral.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel has said Davis, who has been sidelined with tendinosis and a calf in his right leg since Feb. 14, will not play against the Pacers, but will be judged again by team doctors in the arena on Friday night word.
Davis lifted weights at the Lakers practice facility on Thursday, but did not participate in the group practice with the team, Vogel said.
LA has only gone 3-7 since Davis went out, including the loss to Denver on Feb. 14 when Davis planted incorrectly on his right leg and did not play in the second half.
Gasol will miss its third consecutive game due to the health and safety protocols of the league. Vogel said the Lakers ‘do not really have a timeline’ for when Gasol can return.
According to the team, Kostas Antetokounmpo, the third year’s forward, is also not against the Pacers.
With Gasol absent, LA will once again look at center Damian Jones, who was signed on Thursday for a second ten-day contract. Jones scored 12 points, 4 rebounds and 4 blocks in 30 minutes in three consecutive minutes before halftime.
“I want to see more of what he did,” Vogel said of Jones. “I thought he played well for us. He plays the role of a threat to the lobe. Do not try to play offensively off the court.
‘To be a screener and a rebounder and a lob who threatens offensively and defensively, to man the means, to be a shot-blocker, to play in our pick-and-roll coverage, and of course to rebound the ball and what we asked of him last week to match with the bigger centers of other teams. I thought he did well with it, and we’ll look at it further in the next ten days. “