Darvin Ham reveals his communication method with LBJ.
During your Los Angeles Lakers’ 119-115 double overtime home heartbreaker against the Dallas Mavericks Thursday, 38-year-old All-Star forward LeBron James played more minutes than any other Laker (46:45, still a lower sum than all five Dallas starters). James didn’t quite have his normal pep. The 6’9″ power forward still put up solid counting stats, scoring 24 points on just 9-of-28 shooting from the floor (including 0-of-7 shooting from long range — he often settled for risky triples as the game wore on), grabbed 16 rebounds and served up nine assists to teammates.
Head coach Darvin Ham spoke with reporters after the game about how he and James coordinated his minutes Thursday night.
“He’s great about flagging me or alerting one of the assistant coaches that he needs a breather, and sometimes he’s feeling the wave — the game’s going so [well], he’s in a good rhythm, we’re fighting back, we’re trying to hold on, so he’ll power through it,” Ham said. “But yeah at times where he gets fatigued, he’ll signal me, he’ll signal one of the staff members, and we’ll try to get him out of there and get him a breather.”
:It just so happened tonight we ran him straight through,” Ham continued. “He takes great care of himself. Tomorrow will be an individual day, a treatment day, and we’ll get back to it on Saturday.”
James at least got a few more off-days between games than usual. LA will next face off against the Philadelphia 76ers tomorrow.
