Watch: Luke Walton Reveals How Much LeBron Will Play Down The Stretch

LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers are out of the playoff race, and it’s now official. The Lakers are 10 games left for the team, and they trail all eight teams by at least 11 wins. The team is now focused on the last few games, and one of the decisions focuses on LeBron’s role in the last stretch of games. He is still dealing with his groin injury, and every game increases his risk of complications. Head coach Luke Walton talked about LeBron during his post-game press conference.

If you ask LeBron, he will insist on playing in “as many games as possible.”

The Lakers had one of their worst seasons, and LeBron is well aware of that.

“Obviously, it’s been a tough season for all of us,” he said. “It’s not what we signed up for. Throughout the year, things happened. Suspensions, injuries, things of that nature. And just not being able to play sustainable basketball for 48 minutes. But you don’t even try to wrap your head around it, you just keep pushing. Just try to get better tonight, move onto tomorrow, and go from there. Playoffs are never promised. You’ve got to come out and work. For me personally, you just continue to put the work in and see what you can do to help.”

But, missing the playoffs doesn’t surprise him, and he looks forward to his summer.

“Absolutely I’ve thought about how my summer is going to be,” King James said. “It’s unfortunate that we’re so far out of the postseason right now and looking like we won’t be a part of it. Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is just taking care of my body. I’ve played a lot of basketball, played a lot of minutes over my 16-year career. So getting an opportunity to have a couple more months to take care of my body and refresh my mind and my body, is going to be very key going into my 17th year. So I’m looking forward to that.”