LeBron turns focus to rest of season

On the heels of Team LeBron’s comeback win in Sunday night’s All-Star Game in Charlotte, N.C., the real work begins for the four-time league MVP and first-year Laker.

“Looking forward to the second half of the season,” James said after his All-Star team’s 178-164 win over Team Giannis. “Looking forward to seeing what we can do to get back in this playoff race. That’s my only mindset. That’s the only thing that’s going to happen in my mental space for these next two months, pretty much on how I can get this team playing the type of level of basketball we were playing before my injury.”

The Lakers were fourth in the Western Conference before James suffered a strained groin Dec. 25 that kept him out for 18 games, 17 in a row. Since then, the Lakers fell to 10th in the conference and have only 25 games left to try to reach the playoffs.

Having finished their pre-All-Star portion of the season on a negative note with losses to the 76ers and Hawks, the Lakers needed the break to reset.