LeBron James Passes NBA Milestone as Los Angeles Lakers Continue to Struggle
The Los Angeles Lakers have experienced a terrible season thus far, and that is in marked contrast to what many would have predicted given the new players who were brought in by general manager Rob Pelinka.
Thankfully for the Crypto.com Arena side, LeBron James has been having a great season from a personal perspective, and frankly, without the four-time NBA champion regularly producing top-notch displays, the Lakers’ season would have been over a long time ago.
At the start of the season, if you had made an NBA odds prediction, it would have been that the Lakers would breeze through to the post-season and beyond, but right now they will have to hope to use the play-in tournament if they are to have any chance of expanding their season further.
LeBron James has been the only player in Frank Vogel’s team to come close to putting in performances that befit a team who wants to be challenging for the NBA title. Indeed the veteran legend has found himself moving into second place in the all-time regular-season point scorers.
On March 19th, James moved past Karl Malone and into the second place position, which stood at a massive 36,928, and now the only player who stands between the Akron-born star is a certain Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who sits at 38,387, and is within reach of his fellow Lakers idol.
The fact that such a milestone was reached in yet another Lakers defeat, this time against the Washington Wizards, is perhaps apt. It meant that James wasn’t really in the mood to celebrate this amazing feat, commenting;
“Obviously, at some point, I’ll be able to look back at this moment, but right now, the feeling I have — I can’t separate it,”
“We had a great opportunity to pick up some more momentum.”
LeBron went on to add;
“I will not allow myself to think about it. I’ve always just played the game the way I’ve been playing it over the years, and these things have just happened organically by just going out and playing the game the right way,”
“Hope to accomplish that at some point in my career, but I won’t think about it too much.”
LeBron James is posting incredible numbers this season, which are even more phenomenal when you consider his failing team-mates. Right now, he averages 29.8 points a game, which puts him second only to Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid, who averages a round 30 points per game.
The fact that LeBron is posting numbers of this kind in the latter stages of his career should act as motivation to his fellow Lakers players, who, on the whole, have been found wanting, week in, week out.
This is particularly true of new arrival Russell Westbrook who has fallen way short of the expectations that were placed on him when he was brought in during the offseason.
The Lakers are currently 31-41 and sit in ninth place in the Western Conference, just about in reach of a finish that will qualify them from the play-in tournament that starts in mid-April.
