LeBron James admitted Overtime definitely didn’t help him but he was delighted with a 135-133 win against Utah Jazz on Tuesday night. After this much-needed win, Los Angeles qualified for the play-in tournament.
However, the Overtime win must have taken a toll on the bodies of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who both have recently recovered from their respective foot injuries. Thus, their availability for the Wednesday match against LA Clippers could be under scrutiny.
James played for 38 minutes and this was his fifth match after recovering from a tendon injury in his right foot.
“The extra five minutes definitely didn’t help,” James said. “It definitely didn’t help but we needed to get the win.”
“How my foot feels when I wake up and I step out of bed,” James said when asked what would determine whether he suits up for the Clippers game or not. “That’s been the most important since I’ve injured it five weeks ago — the next day after either rehab or training or treatment, whatever. It’s always that.”
Meanwhile, Anthony Davis hasn’t played back-to-back matches since November 6.
“I haven’t played in a back-to-back in a long time,” Davis said. “So, I mean, we’ll all get on a phone call or something tomorrow morning and go from there.”
On the other hand, the team’s head coach Darvin Ham revealed that their aim is to take care of the players.
“We have our short-term business that we need to take care of and our long-term business that we need to take care of,” Ham said. “We prioritize a player’s health, first and foremost. Regardless of what the stakes are or the implications of with a win or a loss or all of that. We need our players to know that we care about their health, first and foremost.”
Ham confirmed they will not be putting their players at risk of aggravating their injuries.
“If we see that they won’t have any issues, in terms of their health, and we’re not putting them at risk, then we’ll proceed,” Ham said. “If there’s any kind of question marks, we’ll walk through them, talk through them, and go from there.”
The Lakers will face the Clippers on Wednesday night.
