LOS ANGELES – With a week and a half of All-Star break behind him to rest his 36-year-old legs, LeBron James said he is locked in the final stretch as the Los Angeles Lakers try to defend their title.
“It’s time to go,” James told reporters in a video conference on Thursday, ahead of the Lakers’ first training session since the end of the break. “It’s time to get ready and make that turnaround, that last lap going into the postseason. … I’m not looking forward to saying, ‘OK, let’s take this out, take this out.’
“Nah, it’s time to go to me.”
The 18-year-old veteran missed out on LA’s last game before the break – a 123-120 loss to the Sacramento Kings on the second night of a consecutive set – to rest his left ankle. It was the only game James lost this season, averaging 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 for the home game on Friday against the Indiana Pacers – except for the 13 minutes he played in the All-Star Game before being left out in the second time.
“I kind of use the first half of the season as being in gear 1, 2 and 3, and then in the second half being more like 4, 5, 6, and then when the playoffs start you’re in 7,” said James. “And that is how I have always adjusted myself in the last years of my career, in fact just increasing more, more and more as the months go by, as the games go into the playoffs.”
However, some other Lakers starters – Anthony Davis and Marc Gasol – remain stationary.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel said Davis, sidelined due to tendinosis and a calf strain on his right leg since February 14, would not play against the Pacers, but will be reevaluated by team doctors in the arena on Friday night. -market.
Davis lifted weights at the Lakers’ facility on Thursday, but did not participate in group training with the team, said Vogel.
LA has only lost 3-7 since Davis was eliminated, including the loss to Denver on February 14, when Davis planted wrong on his right leg and did not play in the second half.
Gasol will lose his third game in a row because of the league’s health and safety protocols. Vogel said the Lakers “don’t have a schedule” for when Gasol will be able to return.
Third-year striker Kostas Antetokounmpo is also out of the Pacers because of health and safety protocols, the team said.
With Gasol absent, Los Angeles will have another chance to see center-back Damian Jones, who signed a second 10-day contract on Thursday. Jones had 12 points, 4 rebounds and 4 blocks in 30 minutes combined in three games before the break.
“I want to see more of what he did,” said Vogel of Jones. “I thought he played well for us. He plays the role of a lob threat. Don’t try to play off that track offensively.
“Being a tracker and a rebound and a threat of lob offensively and defensively, being able to maneuver the middle, being a kick blocker, playing in our pick-and-roll covers and obviously hitting the ball and matching with the bigger centers from other teams is what we asked him for last week. I thought he did well and we will continue to look at that for the next 10 days. “