Six weeks shy of his 39th birthday, LeBron James had his second 35-point game of the season on Friday night in the NBA Inseason Championship, leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a 107-95 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers team.
James played 35 minutes, made 13 of 22 shots, and provided 9 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals. He did it two days after recording a triple-double against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Entering this season, the perception was that the Lakers had done a good job with depth to take some of the pressure off James at this stage of his career.
When the Trail Blazers closed the deficit to seven points at the end of the third quarter, James essentially ran a one-man offense in the fourth quarter to keep Los Angeles ahead.
There aren’t any new superlatives to say about what he’s doing at this stage of his career, but that doesn’t mean fans and analysts are any less impressed with him.
Although he has only played 13 games, it seems that James will once again shoulder the important task of improving the Lakers. Anthony Davis was inconsistent again, scoring 16 points on 8-for-19 shooting, 14 rebounds, 3 steals and 6 turnovers.
Austin Reeves only played 18 minutes off the bench and scored only 7 points on 1-of-4 shooting.
Look at what James is doing, and it’s hilarious to think back to the early-season loss to the Denver Nuggets when head coach Davin Hamm said the team would limit his minutes to keep him healthy.
Since then, James has averaged 34.4 minutes in 11 starts. In those games, he scored 25.9 points, 8.4 rebounds and 6.5 assists on 56.8% shooting (40.6% from three-point range).
The Lakers are back above .500 with a 7-6 overall record and have won their first three group games in the in-season tournament. Their final game in Group A will be against the Utah Jazz (2-1 in the group stage) on Tuesday at Crypto.com Arena.
The winner of this match will advance to the quarter-finals. Before the Lakers take on the Jazz, they will face the Houston Rockets on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. ET.