One of the lone bright spots for the Los Angeles Lakers this season has been the play of LeBron James, and that continued on Friday night when he scored 50 points in a victory over the Washington Wizards.
James did so on an incredibly efficient 18-for-25 shooting, scoring in a variety of ways. It marked his second straight 50-plus-point game at Crypto.com Arena, becoming the first player to do so since Kobe Bryant in 2007.
The eruption began in the third quarter when James scored 12 straight points to give the Lakers the lead, and then he stayed hot until the end of the game.
In his walk-off interview with Mike Trudell of Spectrum SportsNet, James talked about what went into his hot streak, comparing it to the old video game NBA Jam:
“You just try to stay in that as long as you can. I don’t know if you remember the game, what did they used to say, ‘he’s on fire!’ NBA Jam. Sometimes you might want to take a bad shot and it gets you out of that hot streak, so I just tried to stay in that zone as long as possible and I was able to hit a couple.”
James then went on to further discuss his NBA Jam history in his postgame presser, elaborating on how he liked to play and what teams he enjoyed playing with.
“I would definitely try to get on fire. Back then, shooting from halfcourt was something that was unheard of and now guys are actually doing it,” James said. “Back then I would play with the Seattle SuperSonics because you would get Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp. I would play with the Bulls a little bit but obviously MJ wasn’t in the game because not that I found out when I’m much older and a professional, they didn’t have his name and likeness to be able to put him in the game so you have to play with like Horace [Grant] and Scottie [Pippen] or the Mavericks, you could play with [Jason Kidd] or [Jamal] Mashburn or you could sub and put Jimmy Jackson in there because it was usually like three guys. You’re testing my history right now with video games, which I love.
“But definitely, to be able to catch fire was something that you would definitely try to do because you would literally come, right as soon as you would pass that halfcourt line, you would let it go. Oh, and the Golden State Warriors too because you could play with like Tim Hardaway and Chris Mullen, that was nice too.”
Just as James played as some of the past greats, there’s no doubt that kids are playing with him in current video games as he continues to play at an incredibly high level at age 37 in his 19th season.
James wanted to put on show for Lakers fans
It’s no secret that things haven’t gone as planned for the Lakers this season, with their poor play even leading to some boos during home games.
James previously stated he doesn’t have a problem with fans booing, and after his 50-point performance, he discussed the motivation he took from the fans going crazy for him.
“They’ve been great. The Laker faithful know when bad basketball is being played, they know when good basketball is being played. They have the right to have any response they want. At the end of the day, they’ve seen so many great teams, so many great individuals, so many great individual performances, so many things in this building over the course of this franchise history.
“For me, being a part of this franchise, I feel like I just try to give them an opportunity to have some of those memorable nights as well. Try to give them something to cheer for, give them something to feel good about on a nightly basis. I know it hasn’t been as great as they want it to be this year, but you take the small wins when they come for sure.”
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