What LeBron James continues to do at this stage of his career is beyond words. In his 22nd season, with his 40th birthday approaching, LeBron is once again rewriting history as he recorded his third consecutive triple-double in the Los Angeles Lakers’ victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.
James finished with 35 points, 12 rebounds and 14 assists as the Lakers won their third straight game since returning home from their five-game road trip. As for how he is able to still put on these performances, Rui Hachimura believes LeBron has just mastered the game of basketball
“He’s a master of the game. He knows how to play,” Hachimura said after the Lakers win. “He always reads the game. He doesn’t always force anything, he just goes with the flow. It’s just great. He can make us look good, his teammates. He can pass the ball, he can score, he can defense, rebound, everything. I think for me, we kind of rely on him a lot sometimes but I think now we have a good system to help each other on the court both offensively and defensively. So I think it’s a lot of pressure off him so he can be kind of chill and still he can be himself.”
James is simply able to affect the game in so many ways and his basketball IQ remains one of his best attributes as well. Head coach JJ Redick even pointed to that and allowing LeBron to make those reads at times and how the Lakers benefitted from that against the Grizzlies.
“Just by any means sometimes and great players you, you sort of have to give them some autonomy at times,” Redick noted. “We executed back-to-back plays out of out of an ATO, we got a LeBron dunk, and then we got an AD three. There was another timeout on their side. Bron saw something in the way that they had guarded it the first two times, and him and AR, I said, ‘Are you three on the same page?’ Just want to make sure you three on the same page. … We got it. Bron gets a backcut for a dunk.”
And Redick would continue on, echoing what Hachimura said in that LeBron is a master of the game.
“He’s mastered the game,” Redick added. “And we don’t win that game, obviously, without him, but it is; I thought it was a total team effort because we had some adversity tonight. Christian [Koloko] was great in the second half, and even just our life and our energy on the bench just completely shifted. Even the guys that didn’t play tonight, their just energy on the bench. That was huge for us. Again, we kind of lost our way there in the third quarter.”
It wasn’t always pretty, but the Lakers ultimately got the win and LeBron continues to prove himself as one of the best players in the NBA today.
Lakers’ LeBron James becomes oldest player to record three straight triple-doubles
LeBron James rewrote the history books against the Grizzlies, becoming the oldest player in NBA history to record three consecutive triple-doubles at 39 years old and, most important, is that the Lakers won all three of these games.
It is also worth noting that the record LeBron broke was his own as he accomplished this feat at 34 years old.
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