Over the previous two seasons, LeBron James played heavy minutes, mostly because of the problems the Los Angeles Lakers had consistently winning games. He had to carry a heavy workload for them to have any chance of making the playoffs.
But in the first four games of this season, the team has managed his minutes and workload much better. He is averaging 34 minutes per game, and that includes a 39-minute outing on Sunday in an overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings.
In particular, James has played more sparingly in the first three quarters, which has allowed him to play heavily in the fourth quarter as needed. In Monday’s win over the Orlando Magic, he logged 9 minutes and 20 seconds in the final frame, giving him a total of nearly 33 minutes for the game.
Afterward, he talked about his reduced minutes and workload and how it could help him do his thing in the fourth quarter (h/t Lakers Nation).
LeBron & AD speak to the media about the #Lakers bounce-back win on the second game of a back-to-back.
AD: 26 PTS, 19 REB, 5 AST, 3 BLK
LeBron: 19 PTS, 3 REB, 4 AST, 3 BLK pic.twitter.com/bW6ic5eiFj— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) October 31, 2023
“It’s definitely the way to worked out so far in the season. I think probably will continue to be a trend,” James said. “Obviously, that’s winning time. For myself, I love being out there for the fourth quarter being able to make plays. Like that’s the best quarter for me when it comes to being able to close out a game or being able to make plays for my teammates throughout the course of that quarter but you know, it’s worked for us.
“Throughout times throughout the season so far, some of the quarters haven’t been well for us, but like coach [Darvin] Ham said, once he gets to a rhythm of rotations and things of that nature, and where he wants to go in and how which was lineup to go with throughout the course of the game that we will all get better and know what’s going on throughout the course of the game and where we want to be in and how we will finish games and things of that nature but tonight worked out for us once again.”
Sunday and Monday was L.A.’s first set of back-to-back games this season, and there was some question about James’ availability for the contest versus Orlando. The team will be back at it on Wednesday when it plays the Los Angeles Clippers, who traded for former league MVP James Harden on Monday night.