LeBron James scored a season-high 40 points, while tying his career-high in three-pointers made, going 9-for-10 from deep, as the Lakers defeated the Nets 116-104 Sunday night.
To note, this was LeBron’s 672nd career game scoring 30+ points, passing Michael Jordan (671) for the NBA record of most 30-point games. Other notable player on the list include Wilt Chamberlain (558), Kobe Bryant (519), and Kareem Abul-Jabbar (504).
Jordan played in 1,109 career games, holding the NBA scoring average record for both the regular season (30.1 ppg) and playoffs (33.4 ppg). While LeBron is third on the all-time NBA games played list, as tonight was career game number 1,768 (including playoffs). That is to say, he is also first in minutes played throughout his career (67,999 minutes).
After the game, the all-time leading scorer in NBA history hinted that his greatness on the basketball court will not last forever, when asked how much longer he has left to play, LeBron said, “Not very long, I’m not going to play another 21 years, that’s for damn sure… I don’t know when that door will close, but I don’t have much time left.”
Considering all of this, LeBron has still shown no signs of a decrease in production, as he is averaging 25.4 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 8.1 assists per game this season, while shooting 53.3% from the field. Not to mention, after only missing one three on 10 attempts tonight, he currently has a career-best 41.6 3-PT%.
Notably, after scoring 40 points in his winning performance vs. the Nets, LeBron is now tied with Oscar Robertson for seventh all-time in career games with 40+ points (77). To point out, 20 years ago on March 27, 2004, 19-year-old LeBron also scored 41 points vs. the Nets which makes him, still to this day, the youngest player in NBA history to score 40 points in a game (19 years & 88 days).
The Lakers have won six out of their last seven games, currently holding the ninth seed play-in spot in the West with a 42-33 record; they are now 1.5 games behind the Kings and Suns, who each have a 43-31 record, as the seventh and eighth seeds.
With seven games left in the season, the Lakers have good odds to at least secure a play-in spot, as they are 2.5 games ahead of the 11th-seeded Rockets (38-36), who broke their 11-game win streak Sunday vs. the Mavericks.
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