Injuries and COVID protocols have left the Los Angeles Lakers without virtually half of their squad. LeBron James has been one of the few remaining players available for LA and at this point, the heavy workload he's been asked to carry has become quite worrisome.
If you ask LeBron, however, the Lakers superstar isn't at all concerned with the increased minutes he's been playing of late. The King has also been tasked to fill in at center for a shorthanded LA side and apparently, all this doesn't really matter much to him:
“I only played 34 minutes, so obviously defensive things change when I’m playing at the 5, battling vs. a lot of those bigs, but that’s fine,” James said following their 108-88 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, via Harrison Faigen of Silver Screen & Roll. “It makes no difference to me. When I’m out on the floor I’ve got to make plays offensively and defensively.”
You can't fault James for a lack of effort against the Suns, though. He put up a game-high 34 points on 13-of-19 shooting, to go along with seven rebounds, two assists, and two steals in 34 minutes of play. Despite LeBron's heroics, however, the Lakers still lost by 20 points.
Interim head coach Dave Fizdale also chimed in on James' heavy workload. According to the 47-year-old shot-caller, he too isn't worried about the potential consequences of LeBron's increased minutes:
“LeBron don’t give us a choice!” Fizdale said before the game. “What you talking ‘bout? LeBron is like ‘put me out there.’ This guy is a freak, man. It’s so cool being with him again.”
“He just kept saying ‘I want to stay in here. I want to stay in here. So, no, I don’t have a concern is the short answer. But again, I’m not here that long (laughs). That’s easy for me to say as an assistant… The higher-ups and our medical team will obviously have to make those decisions. But the way he prepares himself and the liveliness that he brings to the game, no, I don’t (have a concern).”
It is worth noting that LeBron is currently averaging 37.0 minutes per game. The last time he logged this many minutes in a season was during the 2016-17 campaign with the Cavs (37.8 mpg). At that time, James was just 32. He turns 37 at the end of this month.
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