THE NEW YORK CITY — LeBron James, who is currently 39 years old and plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, is one of the few players who has played basketball for as long as he has, and he continues to argue that no one has done things better than him at his age.
During the Los Angeles Lakers’ victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, James scored 40 points, joining Michael Jordan as the only players in the history of the National Basketball Association to have two games in which he scored 40 points or more after the age of 39. He has already accomplished this feat twice, while Jordan, who played until he was 40 years old, accomplished it three times.
The seasoned player, who is 21 years old, shot 13-for-17 from the field and tied a career best in three-pointers made by shooting 9-for-10 from beyond the arc.
“I don’t ever have to lean on [three-pointers] because I can do so much — I can score on any level on the floor basically once I cross half court,” James remarked in reference to his better marksmanship in the later stages of his career. “I can do so much.” “However, having the ability to have a growth attitude and being able to work on things that the league is evolving to, the league features a significant emphasis on three-point shooting, are both important.
There are certain guys who want to go out there and shoot 12, 14, or 15 three-pointers every game, but I’m not one of those guys. My goal is to earn respect, and in order to do so, teams will need to play me from the outside. That is still something that teams consider about, and it is something like, “If we have to give up something, we would much rather him shoot the ball from the outside.”
Despite the fact that Brooklyn did not always give James open looks. The star player for the Lakers simply became really hot, and he made almost all of the shots he attempted from beyond the arc. And he kept his best for last, scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter on 5-for-6 shooting (4-for-4 from three-point range) to close out the game after the Nets had reduced Los Angeles’s once-26-point advantage to just eight points with 11:42 left in the game.
“It’s incredible,” remarked Darvin Ham, the coach of the Atlanta Lakers. I told him in the huddle before his final little stretch, and we finally substituted him out, that I was just incredibly thankful that he packed the cape on the road trip. I said this before we took him out of the game. All nine of those threes were required.
Over the course of its six-game road trip, which will come to a close on Tuesday and Wednesday with a back-to-back against the Toronto Raptors and the Washington Wizards, Los Angeles improved its record to 3-1 with this victory. With seven games left in the regular season, the Los Angeles Lakers are now ranked ninth in the Western Conference. This places them one and a half games behind the seventh-ranked Phoenix Suns.
During the Easter shooting display, James’ three-point percentage increased to 41.6% for the season, which is the highest it has ever been in his career.
Anthony Davis stated that the shots that he was shooting were not being successful in hitting the rim. “It is delightful to watch at all times. What I mean is, the most points in the history of the NBA, right? Additionally, he is only adding to it in the future. But tonight, the way he shot it was absolutely amazing.
The previous season, James had a shooting percentage of only 32.1% from three-point range. According to him, the injury he sustained in February, which was a tear in the tendon in his right foot, prohibited him from increasing the amount of time he spent working on his shooting rhythm during practices and in the time between games.
In a statement, James stated, “My foot has felt a lot better.” Last year, I didn’t have a lot of time to actually rep a lot because I had to make sure that I could be on the floor moving about or [not] putting a lot of my foot on the floor. This prevented me from having a lot of time to dedicate to reps. It has been a lot of opportunities for me to go down on the ground. Before each and every game, you will most likely find me out on the field, working on my craft and trying to improve my game. So that has been of great assistance as well. Also, I am attempting to maintain consistency with my shot by doing the same shot each and every time. And it is just work. It’s just work, work, work, and more work?
When James came out as a substitute late in the fourth quarter, when the game was almost over, the audience on the road gave him a standing ovation, and he pantomimed placing a crown on his head as a way of expressing his gratitude to them.
Given that James is still, in some respects, performing at the same level as he has in the past, the question that naturally arises is: how much longer does he intend to continue playing?
James responded, “Not nearly that long.” “Not for a very long time. It is evident that I am located on the opposite side of the hill. Consequently, I am not going to continue playing for another 21 years, that much is certain. Not for a very long time. In terms of when I will retire, I do not know what or when that door will close, but I do not have a lot of time left.
