The Los Angeles Lakers easily took care of business on Tuesday night against the Toronto Raptors, winning 128-111 in an outing they had control over from the very start. The Lakers led 100-79 after three quarters, giving superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis the ability to rest for nearly the entire fourth quarter.
James and Davis played 29 and 28 minutes, respectively, James’ ninth-fewest of the season and Davis’ sixth-fewest.
At this stage of the season, it is an absolutely massive feat for James and Davis to get that kind of rest. Especially on the first night of a road back-to-back when the Lakers need every single win they can possibly get. They are still stuck at the No. 9 seed, but are steadily putting themselves in the race for No. 7 with the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings.
James, who is normally always willing to play through fatigue if the team needs it, admitted that it’s hugely helpful for the Lakers that he and Davis were able to sit for most of the fourth quarter, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Of course. I can’t sit here and say not. Obviously the game dictates itself and you play the game however the chips may fall. Today we had an opportunity to bump the lead up in the third and at the start of the fourth we kept going early on and then we were able to shut it down, so that was good.”
Davis shared a similar sentiment, also focusing on the fact that this allows both he and James to have the option to play the second night of the back-to-back against the Washington Wizards on Wednesday, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Anytime you get to rest it’s good, but especially going into a back-to-back. Less taking on your body going into the second night of the back-to-back, especially against a team who gave us a game at home a couple weeks ago. They play hard, score the basketball, play fast. So to get a couple extra minutes of rest is always good for us.”
The Lakers have six games remaining in the regular season, and to avoid any tiebreakers not going their way, they would ideally like to make up for more than the 1.5-game gap between them and the Suns and Kings. In order to do that, they need Davis and James available for as many of those six games as possible. And taking care of business early gives them a chance to do that.
LeBron James admits his time in NBA is not very long
James was extremely candid when speaking about how much time he has left in his NBA career. As he nears the end of his 21st season, he knows that his time in the league is coming to an end, and while he doesn’t know exactly how much longer he’ll play, he is fully aware that it can’t be too much longer before he calls it quits.
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