Winners in seven of their last nine, the Los Angeles Lakers look to keep rolling Sunday when they visit the Phoenix Suns in a matchup with Western Conference playoff implications.
Phoenix sits in eighth place in the West, 2.5 games ahead of Los Angeles, after both sides returned from the All-Star break with back-to-backs on Thursday and Friday.
The Lakers split theirs, rebounding from a 128-110 loss on Thursday at Golden State with a 123-118 home defeat of San Antonio on Friday. LeBron James, who missed the Warriors matchup due to an ankle injury, went for 30 points, nine assists and seven rebounds against the Spurs.
“Where we are as a ball club, and me as an individual where I am health-wise … just taking it a day at a time,” James said Friday of determining his availability in the lineup. “Today was a good day, and hopefully we have a bounce-back day (on Saturday) with a quick recovery because we have a quick, early start on Sunday.”
Friday marked the 50th game in the 21-year veteran James’ 2023-24 season. He has appeared in more than 56 regular-season games just once in his six seasons with the Lakers, playing 67 in the COVID-paused 2019-20 campaign.
His absence from the final game before the All-Star break — a 138-122 Lakers win at Utah on Feb. 14 — and Thursday’s loss at Golden State marked the first time this season James missed consecutive games.
James is averaging 24.9 points and 7.2 rebounds per game — both second on the team to Anthony Davis with his 25.0 points and 12.2 rebounds per game — and dishing 7.8 assists per game.
The Lakers look to close out the season series with a 4-1 advantage. Los Angeles took three from Phoenix early in the season on Oct. 26, Nov. 10 and an in-season tournament contest on Dec. 5, but the Suns won the most recent meeting on Jan. 11.
The 127-109 Phoenix victory in Los Angeles was the first matchup of the four in which the Suns had Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal all in the lineup.
Phoenix played its first two games coming out of the All-Star break with just two of the three, as Beal missed losses at Dallas on Thursday, 123-113, and on Friday in Houston, 114-110.
Arizona Sports 98.7 FM radio reported via social media that Beal could return Sunday from his hamstring injury.
Beal torched the Lakers for 37 points on 14-of-21 shooting from the floor, going 8 of 10 from 3-point range, in Phoenix’s win last month. He is averaging 18.2 points per game in 30 games played this season, third on the team to Durant’s 28.1 and Booker’s 27.6 points per game.
“It would be huge if we’re full strength, but we’ll see where those guys are at,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said of Beal and Jusuf Nurkic in Friday’s postgame press conference. Nurkic, who is averaging 11.7 points and a team-high 10.1 rebounds per game, missed the loss to the Rockets with an ankle injury.
“It’s definitely a scheduling challenge for both teams,” Vogel said. “It’s almost like playing three games in three nights because of the early start, but we’ve got to battle through it. We lost two in a row. We’ve got to get a W.”
–Field Level Media