LOS ANGELES – With All-Star’s week and a half behind him to rest his 36-year-old legs, LeBron James said he’s locked up for the home game while the Los Angeles Lakers try to defend their title.
“It’s time to go,” James told reporters during a video conference call Thursday before the Lakers’ first practice since the hiatus ended. “It’s time to prepare and make that turnaround, that last round going into the postseason … I’m not looking ahead and saying, ‘Okay, let’s take this off, take that off.’
“No, it’s time to go for me.”
The 18-year veteran sat out of LA’s last game before halftime – a 123-120 defeat to the Sacramento Kings on the second night of a back-to-back set – to rest his left ankle. It was the only game James has missed this season as he averaged 25.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 7.8 assists to put his name in the MVP call.
Between missing the Kings game and the hiatus, James had 10 days off to go into Friday’s home game against the Indiana Pacers – except for the 13 minutes he played in the All-Star Game before serving the second half.
“I use the first half of the season as being in gear 1, 2 and 3, then in the second half more like 4, 5, 6, and when the playoffs start you’re in 7,” James said. “And that’s kind of the way I’ve always adapted a little bit over the years of my career, really only more, more and more as the months went on as the games go into the playoffs.”
However, a few other Lakers starters – Anthony Davis and Marc Gasol – remain neutral.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel said Davis, who has been sidelined with tendinosis and a calf strain in his right leg since Feb. 14, would not play against the Pacers, but will be re-evaluated by team doctors at the arena Friday night.
Davis lifted weights at the Lakers exercise facility on Thursday, but did not participate in group training with the team, Vogel said.
LA has only gone 3-7 since Davis retired, including losing to Denver on Feb. 14, when Davis got the wrong foot on his right leg and didn’t play in the second half.
Gasol will miss his third game in a row due to the competition’s health and safety protocols. Vogel said the Lakers “don’t really have a timeline” for when Gasol might return.
Third-year forward Kostas Antetokounmpo has also been out against the Pacers due to health and safety protocols, the team said.
With Gasol absent, LA gets another look at downtown Damian Jones, who signed a second 10-day contract on Thursday. Jones was a total of 12 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 blocks in 30 minutes combined in three appearances before halftime.
“I want to see more of what he’s done,” Vogel said of Jones. “I thought he was playing well for us. He’s playing the role of a lob threat.
To be a screener and a rebounder and a lob threat, offensive and defensive, to be able to man the center, be a shot blocker, play in our pick and roll covers, and of course to let the ball back match bounce with the bigger centers of other teams is what we asked of him last week. I thought he was doing fine with it, and we’ll keep looking at that for the next 10 days. “