went down with injuries<\/a> two weeks ago.<\/p>\nLeBron takes an obvious fatherly pride in Bronny\u2019s development into a contributor for their short-handed team.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery moment we get an opportunity to play together is something I never take for granted,\u201d LeBron said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe being on the floor with him postseason, regular season, training camp, practices, it\u2019s the best thing that\u2019s ever happened to me in my career, above everything I\u2019ve accomplished,\u201d he added. \u201cThe fact that he\u2019s put himself in position to get his number called for a postseason game is pretty remarkable and pretty cool, given the circumstances that he\u2019s been through over the last couple of years. He earned it. He deserves it. He\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
After playing sporadic NBA minutes during his first 1 1\/2 NBA seasons, Bronny has stepped up into a regular role \u2014 partly out of necessity with the Lakers\u2019 top two scorers sidelined, but also because he earned more playing time. He has played 13 minutes or more in seven of the Lakers\u2019 past 10 games, averaging 19 minutes over the past four.<\/p>\n
That responsibility seems likely to continue in the postseason, since Doncic and Reaves won\u2019t play in Game 1 on Saturday, and there\u2019s no timetable for their return.<\/p>\n
Lakers coach JJ Redick confirmed he will be using every healthy option while Los Angeles attempts to beat overwhelming odds without its starting backcourt.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to have all hands on deck in this series,\u201d Redick said. \u201cThat\u2019s just what we\u2019re handed. I think Bronny has improved a lot. We trust him. The shooting piece (of his game), I\u2019m a believer in, because of how well he shot it the last two years in the G League. \u2026 He\u2019s improved a ton defensively, in terms of his body positioning, both on and off ball. We want him to continue to evolve as a disruptive defender as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bronny played only four playoff minutes last season during two of the Lakers\u2019 first-round losses to Minnesota, and he acknowledges hasn\u2019t played in many big games during his brief basketball career.<\/p>\n
He spent his sole collegiate season at Southern California, but he didn\u2019t suit up for the Trojans until midseason after his recovery from an offseason cardiac incident, and that team didn\u2019t make the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what I\u2019ve wanted, to play in the playoffs,\u201d Bronny said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t able to play in March (Madness), and this is a bigger stage than that. I\u2019m so excited to get out there with my teammates and try to get some wins and try to make it further in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
If and when they play together this month, Bronny thinks they can connect quickly. After all, he knows LeBron\u2019s game pretty well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to give all the answers to the test, but I\u2019ve been watching him for a long time, and I\u2019ve kind of picked up on his tendencies,\u201d Bronny said with a grin. \u201cI think it\u2019s good that I\u2019m paying attention during his career and what he likes to do in the postseason. I think we\u2019ll be able to play good together. My IQ isn\u2019t going to be far behind him, but I know what he\u2019s doing and where he likes to get the ball on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bronny James and LeBron James are set to make family and NBA history once the playoffs tip off.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[188037,85,46,3035,112590,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-396148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-bronny-james","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-lebron-james","12":"tag-playoffs","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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