LeBron James held the microphone while addressing the media Sunday before the NBA All-Star Game in Salt Lake City, focusing on what’s ahead for the Lakers.
“It’s 23 of the most important games of my career for a regular season,” James said. “And, it’s the type of mindset that I have and I hope the guys will have coming off the break.”
The Lakers have 23 games left to put themselves in playoff position. They are 27-32 and 13th in the tough Western Conference. They begin their march toward the postseason Thursday against the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena.
Here are five story lines for the rest of the Lakers’ season:
No time to lose
The Lakers’ view all season seemingly has been that they are very close to a top-10 spot for the play-in tournament and nearly as close to a top-six spot for an automatic berth in the playoffs.
The reality is the Lakers are on the outside looking in and have plenty of ground to make up and not much time to make a move.
“Like I told them, we have no more time, no more days, no more games to waste,” coach Darvin Ham said last week after his team defeated the New Orleans Pelicans. “We got to take care of what’s in front of us and put our best foot forward every time we go out there. … Take the wisdom and lessons from the wins and losses we’ve got up to this point and realize we’re still in a position to make something happen and secure a postseason spot. We just have to go out and do it. We can’t keep talking about it. Games are getting short [and] the amount of games are dwindling rapidly.”
The Lakers are two games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 10th spot in the West and 3½ games behind the Dallas Mavericks for the sixth position.
The Lakers will have to climb over Portland, Utah and Oklahoma City to be one of the top 10 teams and also climb past Golden State, Minnesota, New Orleans and Dallas to secure a top-six spot.
The Lakers play 13 of their final 23 games at home and their remaining schedule is ranked the sixth easiest.
Stay healthy
The health of James and Anthony Davis is obviously essential for the Lakers.
James has been dealing with a sore left ankle and foot that didn’t prevent him from playing in the All-Star Game. He did sustain a contusion on his right hand when he tried to block a shot and his finger struck the rim.
Jayson Tatum has a record 55 points to lead Team Giannis to victory over Team LeBron on Sunday night in the 2023 NBA All-Star Game.
James didn’t play in the second half, saying it was precautionary and that “I’ll be fine.”
Davis missed 20 games with a right foot injury but played in 10 games up to the All-Star break. Over that time, he averaged 22.5 points, 12.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.7 blocks and shot 48.6% from the field. The consensus among observers is that Davis has to become a bigger force and stay healthy for the Lakers to have success.
Play defense
The Lakers have to start playing better defense. They are giving up 118.2 points per game, ranking them near the bottom in the 30-team NBA at 26th. They are ranked 18th in defensive rating (113.9 points per 100 possessions).
The Lakers have very good defenders in Davis, Dennis Schroder and Jarred Vanderbilt, but the group has to work together to get the job done.
Come together
The Lakers have acquired six new players in the last month, and it will be important to incorporate them into the mix.
Point guard D’Angelo Russell, guards Malik Beasley and Davon Reed, forwards Vanderbilt and Rui Hachimura, and center Mo Bamba all have shown signs of being able to fit into what the Lakers want to do.
Figure out rotations
It probably will help the Lakers if they have a consistent rotation down the stretch.
In the last game against the Pelicans, Ham started Russell and Beasley in the backcourt, James and Vanderbilt at forward and Davis at center.
Schroder, Austin Reaves, Troy Brown Jr., Hachimura and Bamba came off the bench to play significant minutes.
“It was just about trying to create as much balance as we possibly could,” Ham said. “It was the same thought process at the beginning of the year. And there’s gonna be games where Dennis and DLo [Russell] finish together. But I think just moving Dennis to that second unit along with Troy and Rui, those guys have a great symmetry together. Our new guys that have come in, particularly Beas, DLo and Vando, and putting those guys with Bron and A, and it worked out. I thought we had a well-balanced attack.”
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