After stacking up a few wins at home, the Los Angeles Lakers embarked on a six-game road trip out east.
The Western Conference standings have been tight the entire 2023-24 season, and the Lakers have been stuck trying to improve their Play-In Tournament position. Los Angeles has a decent grip on the ninth seed, but with 10 games remaining there’s still a shot they fall out of the Play-In Tournament entirely.
While Anthony Davis has been available for most of the regular season, LeBron James has been a constant on the injury report with a foot/ankle injury. James has had to manage the injury for most of the year and ended up missing the game against the Milwaukee Bucks after he was listed as doubtful.
During the game, James sent a message about his approach to managing his ankle the rest of the way, via Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report:
“I have to be very strategic and smart of how I manage the rest of the season with my ankle/foot in order to get to the finish line,” James wrote. “Whatever line that lies ahead.”
Head coach Darvin Ham explained in his pregame presser the decision to hold him out against Milwaukee, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“It’s almost go as tolerated, day to day thing,” Ham said. “And obviously he’s experiencing some discomfort, so just decided to shut him down and we’ll go from there. We’ll see how he feels in the morning.”
Ham also wouldn’t commit to James’ availability for the stretch run, starting with Wednesday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies:
“Just like our remaining game schedule, I’m just taking things one game at a time. I don’t want to jump out ahead and mislead you guys into believing something that’s not gonna happen, that’s not true. And so, again, it’s go as tolerated. After the last game he was experiencing some significant discomfort, and so he’s getting treatment around the clock and once he wakes up in the morning we’ll have another update.”
There’s no player in NBA history that’s been better about taking care of their body than James, so the Lakers have to trust he knows what he needs to do to be available when they need him the most.
Darvin Ham says Lakers understand need to win games to climb standings
It’s easy to get wrapped up in watching the standings, but Ham said that he and Los Angeles understand that they need to take care of their business to climb up.
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