Lakers News: LeBron James, Anthony Davis 'Unlikely' to Play in All 3 Scrimmages

Los Angeles Lakers head coach Frank Vogel told reporters Friday that it is "unlikely" that guard/forward LeBron James and big man Anthony Davis play all three scrimmage games in advance of the NBA's restart at the Walt Disney World resort near Orlando, Florida. 

Per Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group, Vogel said plans have not been finalized and that the duo could end up playing all three.

The Lakers will be playing the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday, the Orlando Magic on July 25 and the Washington Wizards on July 27. The entire scrimmage schedule can be found here.

Twenty-two of the NBA's 30 teams are in Florida to finish a 2019-20 season that has been suspended for four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each team will play three scrimmage games between Wednesday and July 28. That will lead into an eight-game regular-season finish for each team in Florida before the playoffs start on Aug. 17.

The Lakers play the Los Angeles Clippers on the first night of the restart on July 30. A win there would put the Lakers 6.5 games up on the second-place Clips with seven contests to go, virtually locking in the No. 1 seed.

Therefore, there may not be much incentive to play James and Davis their regular amount of minutes as the season nears it close.

As it stands, the No. 1 seed brings about less importance anyway with all games being played on the neutral courts of ESPN's Wide World of Sports Complex sans fans.

Plus, the top half of the Western Conference is stacked, with the seventh-place Dallas Mavericks sitting near the midpoint of the West despite being 13 games over .500.

The Lakers should have tough matchups regardless of where they finish in the standings, so therein lies another reason for James and Davis to perhaps rest more than usual before playoffs.

We'll see what the Lakers ultimately decide, but it's a good problem to have with L.A. set to grab the West's No. 1 seed.