The baseball season may be nearly twice as long, and the NFL season may produce harder hits in a smaller sample size, but the NBA season is the toughest grind in sports. Eighty-two games of the best athletes in the world flying above the rim takes its toll, which is why the All-Star break is such an important tool for rejuvenating the body and the mind before the playoff race begins to crystallize.
The prevalence of load management has been a point of contention among fans and analysts in recent years. Though the NBA has tried to curb unnecessary and excessive resting by making players who play less than 65 games ineligible for postseason awards, the reality is that today's game is harder on the body than ever before.
The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most experienced, i.e. oldest, teams in the league. They have the oldest player (the 40-year-old LeBron James) and a veteran roster, though they did just get a bit younger by trading Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic.
The Lakers have been playing outstanding basketball, and Doncic hasn't even stepped foot on the court for them yet. L.A. has won nine of 10 games to solidify its hold on the fifth seed in the West, and they're even within three games of the Grizzlies for the 2-seed. With 32 games still to go, anything can happen.
JJ Redick's club has just two games left before the All-Star break, and they're both against the lowly Jazz, which could very well mean L.A. will get to enjoy the festivities while sitting pretty at 33-19.
Though it's tempting to want to keep driving this bandwagon until the wheels fall off, there are quite a few players on the team who could use a rest before the stretch run. Today we'll look at four who will be glad to get a few days off.
4. Jarred Vanderbilt
He may not get the attention of some of L.A.'s more heralded stars, but Jarred Vanderbilt deserves as much credit as anyone for the Lakers' recent run of success. Since making his season debut after recovering from two offseason foot surgeries, the Lakers are 7-0 in games that Vando plays.
Though he's certainly had plenty of time to rehab his injury and get back to playing shape, we've seen that Vanderbilt is still working his way back to full speed. JJ Redick has been careful not to overburden his defensive stopper with too much too soon, and little by little, his minutes are trickling up, from 12 in his debut to 21 and 20 in his last two games.
The All-Star break will be the perfect chance for Vanderbilt to rest his body after his first three weeks back, setting him up to play an even bigger role down the stretch.
3. Austin Reaves
Austin Reaves carries an injury designation into tonight's game against the Jazz, though he is expected to play through a left elbow contusion that he suffered in Saturday night's win over the Pacers.
If anything, it's surprising that Reaves didn't hurt his back from almost single-handedly carrying the short-handed Lakers in that game. He scored a career-high 45 points and dished out seven assists while LeBron James and Luka watched from the bench. That's the highest total by a Laker in the past two years, and will likely remain so until Luka hangs a revenge 80 on the Mavericks in a couple of weeks.
It sounds like the elbow contusion is nothing serious, but Reaves could use a rest for how instrumental he's been to this Lakers season. He's been the third-most important guy on the team behind James and Anthony Davis, and he'll remain so once Doncic steps in for AD (which could be tonight). Reaves has been rock-solid in scoring 19.1 points and handing out 6.1 assists per game, and his reliability with the ball in his hands made general manager Rob Pelinka comfortable with trading away D'Angelo Russell in late December, a move that improved the team's defense and shooting with the addition of Dorian Finney-Smith.
It's no coincidence that the worst stretch of the Lakers' season overlapped with Reaves missing five games with a pelvic contusion at the beginning of December, and the fact that the team made all kinds of moves at the trade deadline but didn't entertain trading him speaks volumes to how essential he is to their plans.
2. Luka Doncic
"Luka hasn't played a game for the Lakers yet. Why would he need a rest?" you're probably wondering. The answer is two-fold. For one thing, he's coming off of a calf strain, an injury that's notoriously hard to shake. If Doncic plays tonight, it will be the first time since Christmas Day that he's suited up. The Lakers have an enormous vested interest in keeping him healthy, especially given the way the Mavericks have bad-mouthed his conditioning since trading him away (a move that makes them look even worse).
Secondly, if Doncic is able to play tonight and again on Wednesday, it will give him two games of knowledge to show him what he's dealing with in L.A. Doncic is one of the most unstoppable players in the NBA, but it's not because he's more physically gifted than the rest of the league. It's because he has one of the highest basketball IQs in the game.
Giving Doncic a two-game sample and then a week to get his gears spinning on how best to integrate himself into the team is like letting Gordon Ramsay sample a restaurant's food and then giving him a week to improve the menu.
1. LeBron James
Newsflash: LeBron James is old. It's nothing to be ashamed of, as we all have to age eventually. Unlike most, James has done it like those fine red wines he's so fond of, adapting his game throughout the years to still be one of the league's best players even at 40 years old.
I'm 41, and my bones are creaking as I type this. Imagine how James feels while putting up 24.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 9.0 assists in 46 of a possible 50 games. The King's still got it, he could just use a little bit of time off of that uncomfortable throne, even it's only for a few days.
James will be playing in the All-Star Game, so he won't be able to unwind quite as much as his teammates. Still, it will do him good to have a mostly stress-free week, especially for his foot and ankle, which have bothered him off and on this season.
If the new-look Lakers hope to make a deep playoff run through an unforgiving Western Conference, they need Doncic and James and everyone else to be healthy. The All-Star break will allow the entire team to charge its batteries and come back fresh for the final months.