Lakers' LeBron James defies minutes limit, Father Time in first win of season

James played 23 minutes through three quarters in the Los Angeles Lakers' home opener against the Phoenix Suns. With the team trailing by 12, Ham decided to ignore the limit and play James the entire fourth quarter. It worked.

The 38-year-old James, the NBA's oldest player, nearly outscored Phoenix by himself, putting up 10 points, two assists and a steal in the final 12 minutes. As a team, Phoenix had 11 points, one assist and one steal. He showed no sign of fatigue down the stretch, attacking the basket relentlessly in the final minutes to lead the Lakers back to a 100-95 win.

Can James keep it up? His performance is already unprecedented at his age with five 40-point games after his 38th birthday, trailing only Michael Jordan's eight 40-point efforts at that age. However, the one-indestructible James has suffered injuries since arriving in Los Angeles in 2018, missing 26 or more games in four of his five seasons with the Lakers.

Ham wants to preserve James for the 82-game season and playoffs, but right now, the Lakers simply aren't very good when LeBron is on the bench. Through two games, the Lakers have outscored their opponents by 29 points when James is on the court (64 minutes). In the 32 minutes James has sat, the Lakers have been trounced, losing the non-LeBron minutes by a whopping 36 points.

While James is still amazing, the Lakers need to figure out how to succeed when their star takes a break. They'll have to rest him in November and December so he can keep defying Father Time in May and June.