Already, Minutes Restriction Just a Rumor for LeBron James, Lakers

Lakers star LeBron James‘ so-called minutes restriction lasted all of one game. Then coach Darvin Ham decided that James would give Los Angeles its best chance to win.

So Ham made the call to play James all 12 minutes of the fourth quarter. Wise move, given that James scored the game’s final two baskets, each on a driving layup, in the final moments.

That lifted the Lakers to an ugly-but-we’ll-take-it home win over the Suns, 95-91, on Thursday. Phoenix, of course, was missing their star backcourt of Devin Booker (foot) and Bradley Beal (ankle).

But when your best player is closing in on the age of 39, scrappiness and perhaps unlikeliness are the manners in which you might have to snag victories.

James played 29 minutes in the opener, a loss to the Nuggets. He’s supposed to stay around the 30-minute range for most of the season. But on Thursday, he played 35.

Just as James did in the opener, he finished with 21 points. In this game, he did so on 7-of-14 shooting. And he was 2-of-2 when it mattered most. So the extra time didn’t seem to slow him down … at all.

“I understand that we definitely have a system put in place, but tonight called for me to go outside the box,” James said, via Jovan Buha of The Athletic. “And Coach Ham was cool with that.”

James was also there to sort of counter Suns star Kevin Durant. This was their first matchup in five years. Durant gave the vastly undermanned Suns a fighting chance with 39 points and 11 rebounds.

“When you got the competitive juices flowing, you got two of the all-time greats on the floor battling, going back and forth like that, it’s hard to sit out on something like that,” Ham said.

So, minutes restriction? For LeBron James? What minutes restriction? All it took was the second game of the season to show that’s not really going to be a thing.