NEW YORK — Pursing his lips through a brief postgame scrum with reporters in TD Garden’s visiting locker room, LeBron James mused that he would need a little time to swallow the disappointment.
Playing nearly 45 minutes and scoring 41 points in an overtime loss to Boston – one that the Lakers could have won if not for a blown no-call – had sapped him. He was looking forward to a day off Sunday in New York.
“Well, the good thing is we don’t have a game tomorrow,” he said.
It turns out he won’t have a game Monday, either: The Lakers announced on Sunday afternoon that James and Anthony Davis will sit out Monday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets.
The Lakers’ top two players have been recent mainstays on the injury report. James has been listed as questionable for weeks with left ankle soreness, largely playing through it. Davis has played two games, coming off the bench in both, since returning from a 20-game layoff from a foot injury. Both played the entirety of overtime on Saturday night against the Celtics (Davis played 34 minutes).
James has been managed at times throughout the season: He has played in both games of five of the team’s eight back-to-back sets this season. At 38, James has rounded into form as the team’s top scorer and one of the NBA’s leading scorers, helping them navigate a 10-10 stretch without Davis.
The absence might seem conspicuous for James’ high-profile chase of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record. Missing a game in Brooklyn makes it more likely that James – who needs 117 points to pass the Lakers legend – breaks one of the NBA’s most hallowed marks during a home game rather than in one of the three remaining games on this road trip: at New York, at Indianapolis or in New Orleans.
But the Lakers (23-27) are at the back end of a tight Western Conference race in 13th place and need every win they can get. Coach Darvin Ham said recently that James has been as reluctant as ever to take off games – an absence is likely a reflection of his heavy workload in Boston than choreographing when he will make NBA history.
“He’s playing at an all-time high level,” Ham said. “He’s in a really, really good rhythm and he’s not one to take games off. That’s really difficult for him to do.”
With the extra time off, James will have more time to chew on the no-call that kept him from getting a chance to beat the Celtics at the free-throw line on Saturday. A day later, the NBA affirmed the pool report that James should have earned a shooting foul when Jayson Tatum made contact with his arm, according to the Last Two Minute Report.
The Lakers were furious, with players such as Davis and Dennis Schröder suggesting referees should face fines for missed calls. NBA referees do actually face consequences for blown calls: Every official is graded for their games, and only the highest-graded officials move on to work playoff series and the NBA Finals.
In addition, the official Twitter account of the NBA officials union tweeted a regretful sentiment on Sunday.
“Like everyone else, referees make mistakes,” the statement read. “We made one at the end of last night’s game and that is gut-wrenching for us. This play will weigh heavily and cause sleepless nights as we strive to be the best referees we can be.”
That is likely little consolation to the Lakers, who are still stewing over losses to Dallas, Philadelphia and Sacramento in the last month that featured calls the L2M report either said were incorrect or that the Lakers strongly disagreed with.
The Lakers are particularly sensitive to calls and no-calls that have disadvantaged James, who has claimed for years that the NBA doesn’t give him enough calls. At the end of last season, James darkly quipped that he would have to find ways to flop to earn more fouls. Ham said players who flop more than James seem to get what they’re seeking.
“(LeBron is) a guy that decides to play the right way, doesn’t flop, plays downhill, plays a strong, physical brand of basketball,” he said. “And just because he doesn’t flop or he doesn’t fail or he’s not screaming when he’s shooting the ball, like I see a ton of other players doing, he gets penalized for it.”
