Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James has conceded that he wants “more rest” as he prepares himself and the team for a playoff push in the coming months.
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James started the season playing extensive minutes for the Cavs, but he has already missed a career-high 11 games this season while he is averaging a career-low 36.1 minutes per game.
However, he still wants more rest ahead of the post-season despite his load already being reduced and the fact that he has an All-Star level cast around him in Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving amongst others to help take the responsibility off his shoulders.
Cleveland have overcome a slow start to the year to move up to second in the Eastern Conference and while they are still 10 games adrift of the Atlanta Hawks at the top, they remain just one above the Chicago Bulls in third.
While the No.2 seed appears to be their most realistic objective, it would suggest that they need LeBron down the stretch to ensure that they secure it.
Coupled with the fact that speculation has insisted that he wants to become more involved in the MVP conversation, it seems strange that he would pick now to suggest that he wants to rest more.
“I would love to get some more rest, especially going into the playoffs and knowing how important those games are, and how physically taxing those games can be, mentally as well, so we’ll see what happens,” he said, according to Cleveland.com.
In his defence, he obviously needs to be in peak condition when the playoffs start as ultimately that is what really matters. However, it doesn’t send a particularly good message to his teammates who look to him as a leader if he is asking for a break in what is a critical time of the regular season.
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