As long as Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are playing, the Lakers always stand a good chance of winning — even if LeBron James is out.
That proved to be the case yet again Sunday night at Crypto.com Arena as the Lakers rolled over the injury-depleted New Orleans Pelicans 133-121 with James out managing a left foot injury.
The Lakers (15-4) won their seventh straight game behind Doncic’s 34 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists and Reaves’ 33 points and eight assists.
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The Lakers have a game Monday against the visiting Phoenix Suns, but it’s unclear if James will play.
James missed the first 14 games of this season with sciatica and has played in just four games. Left foot injury management also kept him out of some games last season.
“It’s something we’ve had to manage,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “Given the back-to-back and the fact that he’s basically just coming off his training camp — this has been his training camp over the last 10 days or so — [we’re] just being cautious.”
With James in his 23rd NBA campaign at age 40, it remains to be seen how many back-to-back games he will play this season. The Lakers have 10 sets left after Monday.
“No, we’re going to build him up, hopefully, to be able to play in back-to-backs,” Redick said. “That’s the goal. But you are correct. Every back-to-back is a case-by-case. That’s just the reality of the NBA right now. But we want him to be able to play in back-to-backs. So does he. So, we’re going to work toward that.”
The 15-4 Lakers have 63 regular-season games left, meaning that James can miss only two more if he wants to reach the NBA minimum of 65 games that players need to appear in to earn postseason awards. James has made a league-record 21 straight All-NBA teams.
Redick said individual postseason awards have “never come up as something that’s important” in his discussions with James.
“I want all my guys to get whatever award they deserve,” Redick said. “Of course, I want, you know, Austin, Luka, LeBron, like whoever, I want them to get awards. That’s great for them, but … the list of things that you have to worry about and think about as a player and coach, it’s so far down the list.”
The Lakers scored 77 points in the first half against New Orleans, tying the most points they have scored in any half this season, and they scored 46 points in the first quarter, the most they have scored in any frame this season.
It figured to be an easy night for the Lakers, who also got 22 points and 12 rebounds from Deandre Ayton, with the Pelicans (3-18) missing starters and key role players, including Zion Williamson, who was managing a left hamstring injury.
Lakers guard Marcus Smart missed his second straight game with back spasms.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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