NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 LeBron James sat at his locker \u2014 having just scored 30 points in 33 minutes to help the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Pelicans on Tuesday night \u2014 when the subject of his availability to play the next night in San Antonio came up.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery back-to-back, for the rest of the season, it\u2019s TBD,\u201d James said, as in, to be determined. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 41. I\u2019ve got the most minutes in NBA history,\u201d James continued with an incredulous grin. “Bank it right now, OK? What are we talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s just that sometimes James \u2014 the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and first ever to reach 40,000 career regular season points (42,575 and counting) \u2014 can still play with the type of vigor and effectiveness that makes him seem younger and more durable than he did while sitting out this season’s first 14 games with sciatica.<\/p>\n
James was in dominant form from the first 30 seconds until the final minutes of a 111-103 victory in the Big Easy, dunking just 19 second into the game and hitting deep 3s to ignite a decisive 18-4 run to open the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
It was the second time in three games that James had scored at least 30, having poured in 31 in a victory over Memphis on Friday.<\/p>\n
Lakers coach JJ Redick said he won’t necessarily expect that kind of production from James on a regular basis, but he doesn’t want to put limits on the prolific, 23rd-year NBA superstar, either.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know LeBron. I know how much he puts into this. It\u2019s just recognizing, game to game, what he has,” Redick said, comparing James to Hall-of-Fame Major League Baseball pitcher Greg Maddux during the final years of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery night, he doesn\u2019t have his best stuff, but he has enough to win,\u201d Redick said. \u201cI\u2019m his catcher and I\u2019ve got to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the best way to kind of utilize him … based on the opponent, based on the coverage, based on how he\u2019s moving?” Redick continued. \u201cIt\u2019s really just that ongoing dialogue with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
James said he considers Luka Doncic to be the Lakers’ premier player now and that it’s up to him and the rest of his teammates \u201cto bend our game around him and figure it out.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a problem for me,\u201d James added. “It\u2019s not an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
James said his goal after the victory in New Orleans was to get a good night’s sleep.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping my body recovers. That\u2019s most important,\u201d James said. \u201cSee how I feel in the morning, try to get some more rest and see how I feel when I get up from my nap. … We\u2019ll go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
But James also stressed that he’s not looking to take too many games off when he doesn’t know how many more he’ll play before his time to retire comes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have more of an appreciation on a night-to-night basis when I\u2019m able to suit it up,” James said. “I\u2019ve never taken being in the NBA for granted, but I think it\u2019s at this point in my career where I\u2019m 41 years old, I just appreciate the ability to go out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Redick will keep trying to get the best out of him \u2014 without wearing him out.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, what he\u2019s doing at 41, what he did last year at 40, it\u2019s greatness,\u201d Redick said. “It\u2019s just a different form of greatness.\u201d <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 LeBron James sat at his locker \u2014 having just scored 30 points in 33…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[160359,2724,355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-392544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ap-sports","9":"tag-associated-press","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}