Since Anthony Davis went down to injury, LeBron James has picked up the slack and done his best to carry the Los Angeles Lakers to wins.
Despite another Herculean effort, the Lakers fell short to the Kings as they crumbled in the second half. Los Angeles held a 14-point lead early in the game but saw it completely erased in the second quarter. From that point on, it was a struggle for the Lakers to overcome the hump, though James made sure his squad was never truly out of it.
At 38 years old, the Lakers have to be conscientious about how much of a workload James is taking on on a nightly basis. Even Darvin Ham expressed concern as James has averaged 38 minutes per game in his last eight. However, the superstar isn’t making any excuses for himself and is simply doing his best to stay ready so he can handle such a large burden.
“Just staying ready. Keeping the main thing, the main thing and tonight was the [Sacramento] Kings, and no matter fatigue, no matter what’s going on with me personally as far as bumps and bruises and fatigue, whatever, my job is to go out and still perform at a high level. And trying to put ourselves in a position to win a ballgame. And I feel like we did that tonight again. Just came up short.”
Against the Kings, James led the team in scoring, rebounds and assists, but it came in a team-high 37 minutes. As has been the case throughout the 2022-23 season, the Lakers were unable to keep pace with the opposing team once James went to the bench. Ham had no choice but to play his star major minutes, but it’s clearly working against them as James looked gassed by the end of the game.
It’s the same script for the Purple and Gold at this point. They start games off strong and take leads, but as soon as James begins to tire out, then the team falls apart and they’re stuck trying to dig themselves out of holes. James later said that they have zero room for error after the loss to Sacramento and that’s about as accurate of an assessment one can make about Los Angeles right now.
Anthony Davis pain-free after ramping up individual workouts
While James is doing the heavy lifting for the Lakers, his co-star Anthony Davis continues to work his way back from injury. It sounds like things are progressing well as Ham said Davis has been pain-free while ramping up his individual workouts.
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