LeBron James has amassed a ton of records throughout his historic career, many of which seem unlikely to be broken for a very long time and perhaps ever. One of those records recently came to an end as James’ streak of 1,297 game scoring at least 10 points was snapped during a Los Angeles Lakers victory over the Toronto Raptors.
LeBron finished with just eight points on the night, but the Lakers got the victory as he found Rui Hachimura for the game-winning 3-pointer instead of trying to score and extend his streak.
On the latest episode of the “Mind the Game” podcast with Steve Nash, James reflected on the ending of the streak, noting that he was always aware of his points, but wasn’t going out of his way to keep it going:
“I’m a guy that goes to the bench and I like to look at the stat sheet. I like to look at what I’m shooting from the field, I like to be super efficient. I’d be lying to say that I don’t know how many points I have at any given moment of the game, but I never went into the game during the streak saying ‘OK, I have to get 10 points. I have to keep this streak going.’ It would be a disservice to me and the way I play the game. And it showed in how this streak ended on how I’ve always played the game.”
James shot just 4-of-17 on that night and he admitted that he knew the streak could end as he just couldn’t get in rhythm, which is partly why he passed to Hachimura for the game-winner:
“Yeah, I was clearly aware. You know, I was so not in a rhythm. The one rhythm I know that I will always have is the ability to draw a crowd and put the ball on-time, on-target. I had a couple shots in that game where, literally I had a three on the right wing that would’ve put me up to 11 points that hit all the rim, hit the backboard, came back around the rim again and then came out. I was like, ‘OK, it’s one of those nights. It’s one of those nights.’”
The streak nearly ended the game before, as LeBron finished with just 10 points in a blowout loss to the Phoenix Suns and there were other contests in which it almost happened as well. James recalled a game in the 2021 season in which he tried to play through injury and just barely reached the 10-point mark before having to exit:
“I mean, there were some close calls for sure. I had a season in which I believe, I don’t know if it was 2021 or ’22 or maybe ’20, I don’t know coming out of the bubble. I was playing some of the best basketball of my career even at that stage of my career and we were playing Atlanta and my leg got rolled up on. And any time that I’ve sprained my ankle or my leg got rolled up on or whatever I’ve had this routine of like, ‘OK, you feel it, but let’s just tighten the shoes. Let’s tighten the shoes up a little bit tighter and let’s get going.’ And I played a little bit more through it. I was in the left wing, got a pass, hit a three. I think that actually put me up to 10 points. And my leg just started getting really, really hot and I could barely run. Basically long story, short, I think I was out maybe 4-6 weeks with a high ankle sprain. And that was one of the moments where I was like, yeah, very easily could’ve ended that night for sure. And there was a couple other moments too, but that was definitely one that sticks out in the front of my mind.”
James did wind up missing more than a month after that game against the Hawks, but that just further shows how improbable a streak like this is. A freak injury or ejection at any point could have cut this streak down significantly. And with the longest active streak being more than 1,000 games away, it will be a very long time before anyone could even potentially approach LeBron’s mark.
James Harden doesn’t believe LeBron James’ scoring record will be broken
Another record in which James is so far ahead of everyone else is the all-time NBA scoring record and James Harden doesn’t believe anybody will break the Lakers’ superstar’s record.
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