LeBron James may be in the 21st season of his NBA career, but he's still as dominant as ever, which was on full display in the Los Angeles Lakers 130-125 overtime win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night. James was spectacular for the Lakers in this game (35 PTS, 12 REB, 7 AST, 13-19 FGM), but there is a concerning trend for James that has caught the attention of Skip Bayless.
After the Lakers season-opening loss to the Denver Nuggets, head coach Darvin Ham revealed that James' minutes would be somewhat limited throughout the course of the season, which made sense given James played 29 minutes in the season-opener. Since then, though, James has averaged 37.2 minutes per game, pretty much throwing his minutes restriction out the window in the process. While Bayless is impressed with James' play, he's concerned with whether or not it will hold up if he keeps playing heavy minutes.
"The minutes do concern me because of the injury factor."
Skip Bayless on LeBron James' productivity early this season.
(via @undisputed)pic.twitter.com/XsreZcOAWm
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) November 2, 2023
Bayless' point is fair here, as James is 38 years old and has a lot of tread on his tires. While winning regular season games against their fellow Los Angeles rival is nice, the Lakers are going to have to do whatever they can to ensure that James is good to go for the postseason. The NBA's new load management rules will make that difficult, but to Bayless' point, James shouldn't be playing over 37 minutes a night at this stage of his career.
Not every game is going to be close enough to warrant James breaking his minutes restriction, but the more high-30/low-40 minute games he racks up, the scarier his usage will become for the Lakers. It's not a big deal for LA since they have only played five games, but this is a troubling trend that could come back to bite the Lakers if it keeps up.