Even without Anthony Davis, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers were able to get the job done and handily beat the Dallas Mavericks to earn their seventh consecutive win.
With Davis sitting out, James took it upon himself to get the offense going and he was absolutely electric, scoring 35 points on 14-of-25 shooting from the field while pulling down 16 rebounds. He had no issues driving to the rim as Dallas did not have much interior protection with Kristaps Porzingis also missing the game.
James has had one of his most productive regular seasons in recent memory and as a result, he has been climbing up the all-time leaderboard in several statistical categories. Against the Mavericks, he passed Michael Jordan for fourth on the NBA’s all-time field goals made list.
The 35-year-old admitted he was honored to be mentioned with Jordan but seemed to ultimately downplay the accomplishment, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I think my legacy will speak for itself when I’m done, so I don’t really talk about my legacy. When you on a journey and you in a marathon, to be able to have feats along that way is pretty special. And anytime I’m linked with the greats — tonight being MJ himself — is special. Like I said post game, hopefully I continue to make the greats proud, live on their legacy and hopefully continue to make my family and my fans proud as well. So that’s what it’s about.
Even in his 17th NBA season, James continues to be one of the most dominant forces in the game as he is able to do anything on the court. Playmaking and passing the ball has always been his forte, but his ability to score is also nothing to scoff at given how overwhelming he can be on the offensive end.
His scoring has gone a bit under the radar during the 2019-20 NBA season due to the fact that he is leading the league in assists, but he is still averaging an impressive 25.4 points per game. James has made it a point to make Davis the focal point of the offense, but he has proven that he is still more than capable of carrying the scoring burden when he absolutely needs to.
Even at 31-7, the purple and gold still have some work to do as they can tighten the screws on both ends of the floor. Their next game against the Oklahoma City Thunder provides a challenge as they will not back down and force them to focus for all four quarters.
