LeBron James ended one of the most incredible streaks in sports on Thursday. With a pass.
For the first time since Jan. 5, 2007 — six days after James’ 22nd birthday — the Los Angeles Lakers star finished a game with fewer than 10 points scored. That was by far the longest streak in NBA history, with the next-closest being Michael Jordan at 866.
Advertisement
Kevin Durant is the new active leader at 267 games, just over a fifth of the way there.
[Get more Lakers news: Los Angeles team feed]
James finished the game with eight points on a rough 4-of-17 shooting night against the Toronto Raptors. With the game tied at 120, he got one last chance with the ball when Austin Reaves passed to him in the final seconds, but he opted to kick the ball out to Rui Hachimura instead.
Hachimura made a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Lakers a 123-120 win.
James’ explanation of the play:
“Just playing the game the right way. You always make the right play. That’s just been my MO. That’s how I was taught the game. I’ve done that my whole career. There’s not even once second-guessing that. Once they doubled AR and the ball got swung to me, I know it was a numbers game, we got a 4-on-3 advantage. I was just trying to put the ball on time, on target and Rui knocked it down.”
Advertisement
It was a historically off night for James, and the Lakers were also missing Luka Dončić, who missed the game for the birth of his second child. The Lakers primarily won because Reaves picked up the slack with 44 points on 13-of-21 shooting plus 11 assists and 5 rebounds. James also contributed 11 assists and 6 rebounds with no turnovers, so he contributed in other areas.
James’ double-digit scoring streak surpassed Jordan’s back in 2018 and has been playing out in the background ever since. It’s an accomplishment that reflects James’ talent, consistency and, importantly, health. All it would have taken was James tweaking an ankle in the first quarter for the streak to end, but he still managed to score a significant amount in every single game he played from season 5 to 22.
Put another way, there was an eight-year stretch in which James posted eight NBA Finals appearances and zero games of nine points or fewer.
Advertisement
How far back was Jan. 5, 2007? It’s a date that came about a month before Peyton Manning’s first Super Bowl title. Barry Bonds wasn’t MLB’s all-time home run leader yet. Stephen Curry was in his freshman year at Davidson. So was Tim Tebow at Florida. Novak Djokovic was more than a year away from his first Grand Slam title. Michael Phelps had only six Olympic gold medals. FC Barcelona had just won the Champions League after leaving a promising 19-year-old named Lionel Messi off its roster due to injury.
Apple announced the iPhone four days later.
James is the NBA’s all-time scoring leader with 42,268 points, but his double-digit scoring record might be even harder to break.
