LeBron James and his playing time has been perhaps the biggest storyline surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers this season. In an effort to load manage the 21st-year superstar without him taking significant time off, the Lakers came in to the season with the goal of playing him around 28-30 minutes each game. So far, it hasn’t gone exactly to plan, but he has played in 35 minutes or less in three of four games.
However, he has played a significant bulk of minutes in the fourth and final quarter of games. Through four games, 45 of his 136 minutes this season (33%) have come in the fourth quarter or overtime. This means the Lakers could be quietly shifting to a new plan that involves James sitting more during the first three quarters to preserve him for late-game situations.
James admitted that this is the type of playing schedule that might continue for a while this season as the Lakers figure out a way to keep James healthy for both the regular and postseason.
“It’s definitely the way to worked out so far in the season. I think probably will continue to be a trend,” James said. “Obviously, that’s winning time. For myself, I love being out there for the fourth quarter being able to make plays. Like that’s the best quarter for me when it comes to being able to close out a game or being able to make plays for my teammates throughout the course of that quarter but you know, it’s worked for us.
“Throughout times throughout the season so far, some of the courts haven’t been well for us, but I think once we get to like Coach Ham, once he gets to a rhythm of rotations and things of that nature, and where he wants to go in and how which was lineup to go with throughout the course of the game that we will all get better and know what’s going on throughout the course of the game and where we want to be in and how we will finish games and things of that nature but tonight worked out for us once again.”
In-game load management with James is the perfect response to rules put in place by the league in the offseason with regard to load management and games played requirements for awards. Not only that, it keeps James able to play as many games as possible while limiting the amount of times he could find himself needing to miss a long stretch.
The Lakers have needed James in crunch time several times this season already, but the hope is that they can put themselves in better positions to win earlier as they mesh. That way, James can limit his playing time in all four quarters, not just the first three.
The plan has worked so far though as LeBron has looked fresh in fourth quarters this season, averaging 11.0 points, 3.2, rebounds and 1.5 assists on 78% true shooting.
Anthony Davis believes Lakers have solid rhythm
Even though L.A. is 2-2 with two road losses this season, there is no lack of faith internally about whether or not they are in a good spot. Anthony Davis believes the Lakers have a good rhythm so far even if the results aren’t exactly what the expectation is for them to be.
“I think we’re in a good rhythm collectively for the most part of the game. We have our moments where we look off, but I think for the most part, I think we look fine. Guys are reading each other on the floor, we’re in constant communication with what we want on the floor, what we see. Guys are talking to each other from the bench, letting guys know what we see. So I don’t think that’s much of an issue.”
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