LOS ANGELES — Usually, LeBron James spends his off days consuming game footage, monitoring his diet or working out.
But as he prepares for a playoff run that he hopes will result with his fifth NBA championship, James has added something new to his routine. He frequently monitors the NBA standings.
“I don’t do it every day, but it’s talked about pretty much all the time,” James said. “You kind of see where you’re at. For us, obviously, our mission is to lock in a playoff spot. We don’t want to have to play in the play-in. So we understand what’s at stake.
The Lakers made substantial progress toward avoiding that scenario with a 104-98 victory over the Houston Rockets at Crypto.com Arena on Monday night.
The Lakers (46-29) have a two-game edge over the Memphis Grizzlies (44-31) for the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference to secure home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The Lakers have inched closer behind the Denver Nuggets (47-28) and Rockets (49-27) for either the third or second seed, respectively. The Lakers have a cushion over the sixth-seeded Golden State Warriors (43-31) and seventh-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves (43-32), which are currently slated to appear in the NBA’s play-in tournament.
With seven regular-season games remaining, Lakers coaches and players insist they have focused more on the opponent’s scouting report and their own progress than talking about the current standings race. In the coaches’ lounge and the players’ locker room, however, inevitably they talk about fluctuating playoff seedings.
“Everybody is paying attention. I can’t lie,” Lakers forward Dorian Finney-Smith said. “Let’s be honest. Come on, man. Everybody be looking at the standings. We don’t want to be in the play-in, so every game matters.
Not only would avoiding the play-in tournament give the Lakers more time to rest their bodies and prepare for their first-round opponent. It would eliminate any chance of one bad game ruining their plans to keep playing into June. In the past week, the Lakers seemingly have looked invincible or vulnerable in a high-stakes game.
In the Lakers’ win over the Rockets (49-27), they showed they have superior experience, execution and toughness to take care of a defensive-minded team that has blended its physicality, youth and veteran leadership. The Lakers displayed a similar mindset against a Grizzlies team on Saturday that may self-destruct after surprisingly firing head coach Taylor Jenkins.
Last week, though, the Lakers looked like a much different team.
While James knocked off rust from a seven-game absence due to a left groin injury, the Lakers didn’t play much defense in double-digit losses to Chicago and Orlando. A night after securing a win with a last-second tip-in at Indiana, James committed a costly turnover and two poor defensive assignments that led to a last-second loss in Chicago.
Will those close up-and-down games prepare the Lakers for the postseason? Or do they foreshadow erratic performances in upcoming high-stakes games?
“Never get too high. Never too low — no matter what’s going on throughout the course of a ballgame,” James said. “Win, lose or draw, if you go out and you have your game plan and attack, you try to execute that at 48 minutes. And then you give yourself a good chance to win every night.
James has enough perspective through four NBA title runs, 10 Finals appearances and 17 postseason stints on how to manage those emotional swings. He also has enough perspective on how hard it will be to gauge a team’s championship fortunes even during the last two weeks of the regular season and early in the postseason.
“In a playoff series, each game is its own thing,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “Because teams adjust and they decide what they’re willing to live with and what they’re trying to take away.
In the Lakers’ case, that will mostly start and end with James.
Even during his 22nd NBA season, James has still played at an All-Star level. He has mostly mastered when to make the right play. He has seamlessly adapted with Luka Dončić empowering him with a large playmaking and scoring role since the Lakers’ blockbuster trade deadline move.
After mostly conserving his workload on defense during the latter part of his NBA career, James has excelled both with his defensive communication and effort of late. To wit, James stuffed Rockets center Alperen Şengün at the rim while the Lakers held a 102-98 lead with eight seconds left Monday night.
But can the 40-year-old James stay healthy following his groin injury?
“I’m getting better every day,” James said. “Every game, I’m starting to feel a little bit better after the injury. My wind is getting back, a little bit better besides coming off that last road trip and being under the weather once again. But I’m getting back.
Yet, the Lakers’ fortunes also hinge on other factors. How aggressive can Dončić and Austin Reaves play without diluting the other players’ value? Can Finney-Smith, Rui Hachimura and Gabe Vincent become consistent two-way players? Can Jaxson Hayes sustain his high level as both a lob threat and rim protector?
The Rockets had won 12 of their past 13 games entering Monday’s matchup, but they saw the Lakers mostly show the best version of themselves by playing with what Redick called a “playoff mentality.
Even as Dončić labored through a 6-for-16 shooting performance, he still produced magic. He scored 20 points with stepbacks and trips to the free-throw line. He added nine assists, which included a behind-the-back pass to Vincent for an open 3-pointer and a timely pass to Finney-Smith for another 3 after a cross-up. Despite absorbing Dillon Brooks’ physicality and a hard fall on his right elbow, Dončić competed through pain that required him to wear heavy wrap afterward.
Terrible, but it’ll be fine in two days,” Dončić said. “We fought really hard. It was a very physical game. And you know, we’ve got to play like this every game.”
The Rockets owned the glass (51-45 rebounding edge) with a big lineup that featured the 6-foot-11 Şengün and 6-foot-11 Steven Adams occasionally playing together. But the Lakers relied on their small-ball lineups to hold the Rockets to a poor outside shooting night (10-for-32 on 3-pointers) and produced an honest effort on the glass. Consider Redick’s pregame message.
If you’re on Şengün and Adams, you’re not going to get the rebound,’” Redick relayed to his players. “‘Your job is to box out and somebody else’s job is to come in, tip a ball to a teammate and grab the rebound. We were great with that.
Can the Lakers consistently replicate what they showed against Houston in a possible playoff matchup? It seems hard to make that declaration give the Lakers’ unpredictable play. With each game affecting the playoff seedings significantly, though, the Lakers at least have improved their mathematic positioning for a deep playoff push.
“Even at this stage of the season where we’ve had a couple bad stretches,” Redick said, “we still can control where we’re seeded and if we make the playoffs.”
