The Los Angeles Lakers have just 17 games left on the 2018-19 regular season schedule and it seems like All-Star forward LeBron James won’t be suiting up for all 17 matchups.
According to a Thursday report by Yahoo! Sports NBA insider Chris Haynes, James will be put on a minutes restriction for the rest of the season and likely won’t be playing in back-to-backs.
This decision has to do with the fact that the Lakers are on the verge of missing out on playoff contention.
BREAKING: @ChrisBHaynes reports Lakers will put LeBron on a minutes restriction and likely won't let him play back-to-backs. pic.twitter.com/02jI7UYIsp
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) March 7, 2019
“Now that the Lakers are almost out of playoff contention, that there was a conversation had between LeBron James’ trainer and the front office,” Haynes said. “They came to the conclusion that moving forward, LeBron James will play somewhere of a minute restriction of 28 to 32 minutes and possibly on back-to-backs. Depending on how LeBron James feels, he might sit out on one of those back-to-backs.
“There’s three back-to-backs remaining. I was also told that the front office spoke with his agent Rich Paul and explained the scenario with him. Everybody understood, everybody is in agreement. So looking forward, it won’t be necessarily a shut down of LeBron, it will be a cool down for LeBron.”
This is not surprising, but it is disappointing. When James signed with the Lakers last summer, most experts expected the Lakers to immediately contend for a high playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Now, it’s becoming abundantly clear that James and the Lakers won’t even make it to the playoffs at all.
For James, it makes perfect sense that the 34-year-old wants to rest his body now that the Lakers are playing for nothing.
Hopefully the upcoming rest will allow him to come back strong for what will need to be a much more successful 2019-20 season.
