Getty LeBron James and Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Anthony Davis and LeBron James were listed on the Los Angeles Lakers injury report but don’t expect the superstar duo to have any restrictions.
Head coach Darvin Ham was asked about James and Davis potentially having some limits for their playoff opener against the Memphis Grizzlies and fired back with a comical answer.
“I love being alive, so there will be zero restrictions on LeBron and AD,” Ham joked.
Darvin Ham on if there are any restrictions on LeBron and AD workload-wise in the playoffs: “I love being alive, so there will be zero restrictions on LeBron and AD.”
There would be no reason to think either James or Davis would need to be limited. Both played over 40 minutes in their Play-In Tournament win against the Minnesota Timberwolves and haven’t shown any lingering issues from their foot injuries.
For James, the 45 minutes he played against Minnesota was the highest total he’s logged since mid-January when he played 47 minutes in a double-overtime loss. For Davis, it was just the fourth time all season he broke the 40-minute mark.
“It took everything out of us to get to where we are, and it took more out of us tonight,” Davis said. “But we’ve got a couple of days before we go to Memphis to start preparing for them. It’s been a battle. It’s been an up-and-down season for us, but now is the time to show who we are, and we showed it tonight.”
Lakers Don’t Feel Like Underdogs Against Grizzlies
The Lakers are the No. 7 seed and get a date with the No. 2 seed Grizzlies for their first-round matchup. Despite the disparity in seeding, the Lakers don’t see themselves as underdogs after winning 10 of their last 12.
“I think seeding doesn’t matter,” Davis said, per ESPN. “Once you get in, it’s all about matchups and things like that. We don’t look at ourselves as underdogs, obviously.”
James is one of the most decorated players in NBA postseason history and thinks it’s wide open once you get to this time of year. The logjammed Western Conference standings this season would make that even more true for this edition of the postseason.
“It’s 16 teams in the postseason, and there’s opportunity for all 16,” James said. “Everyone’s record is 0-0 now and we’re playing against a very worthy opponent and we respect them a lot. So we just got to be ready for the challenge.”
Lakers Need to Slow Down Ja Morant
“Last couple of days have been really nice. We’ve gotten together as a team… really locked in and studied all the film.” Austin Reaves on the #Lakers reseting to prepare for the first round.
The Grizzlies are a solid defensive team and the Lakers will have to string together some reliable offense with Dillon Brooks and Defensive Player of the Year finalist Jaren Jackson roaming around.
For the Lakers, the key will be slowing down Ja Morant, who put up 39 the last time the teams met up.
“Ja is just a really good player,” Lakers guard Austin Reaves said via Spectrum SportsNet. “Obviously as we’ve seen the last three years or so. There’s different variations we can do and different coverages we can try out, but at the end of the day, he’s a really good player and he’s gonna ultimately get his. So we just gotta limit him, make it hard for him in whatever way we can and it’s really just about us locking in and playing as hard as we can.”
The Lakers are slight underdogs (+105) to win the series against the Grizzlies. Memphis is a 3.5-point favorite for Game 1 on Sunday.