LeBron James continues to defy all logic in his 20th NBA season. On his 38th birthday, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar celebrated with a 47-point, 10-rebound, 9-assist performance as the Lakers beat the Atlanta Hawks 130-121.
LeBron did it all on this night, operating from the post, knocking down 3-pointers and getting in transition to throw down some huge dunks. But to say he turned back the clock wouldn’t be fair either as he has had unbelievable performances like this in recent years as well.
As far as what really motivated LeBron to put on a show, the Lakers superstar said there were a couple of things that went into it, via NBA.com:
“I don’t know. I think it was fueled by a couple things. Obviously, us trying to play better basketball and seizing the moment. Atlanta has always been kind and welcoming to myself and my teammates, whatever uniform I’ve been in they’ve always respected the game. Some of the competition that was out on the floor; Trae, Dejounte. A little bit of everything had something to do with it tonight. It’s always great that you can have a performance, but also this results in a win that’s most important for me.”
Something else that surely gave LeBron even more of a boost was that his wife, Savannah, and his mother, Gloria, were in the building as it is no secret how important family is to the Lakers superstar. But James is also determined to get the Lakers back on the winning track.
He has put out some excellent performances as of late, but they didn’t quite push the Lakers to victory so James figured he needed to add a few more points to get them over the hump:
“I mean I’ve been scoring 30 and it hasn’t worked so, let me try 40, and we got a win. It’s just math that’s all.”
The math added up to a Lakers win and while many players stepped up to help on this night, it was undoubtedly LeBron James leading the charge. He proved once again that he remains one of the best players in the NBA today, and maybe the greatest this league has ever seen.
Lakers’ LeBron James joins Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan with historic performance
This isn’t anything new, but once again James has put himself in the history books with a performance, a seemingly weekly occurrence at this rate.
LeBron joined fellow Lakers legend Kobe Bryant as the only players to score at least 45 points in a game in their 20th season, which Kobe infamously did in his final game with that legendary 60-point performance. LeBron also joined Michael Jordan as the only players to post 45 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists at the age of 38.
James is simply an all-time great and he continues to show why regularly.
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