Game after game, the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James continue to experience a paradoxical season where the star is approaching a historic moment and the regular season points record, held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, while his team is struggling to find a place in the play-offs. Saturday night, traveling to the New Orleans Pelicans, the Lakers have once again disappointed. At the Smoothie King Center, they were unable to stem the attacks of Brandon Ingram (35 points), who finally found the rhythm after a long absence, and lost five points (131-126), an award-winning basket from CJ McCollum (23 points) having buried their last hopes late in the game.
If Anthony Davis was the most prolific Laker with 34 points and 14 rebounds, LeBron James still compiled 27 points, nine rebounds and six assists. A performance that now places him only 36 points from the absolute record for points in the regular season (38,387). A mark that James has already reached nine times this season. He could therefore become the new record holder from the night of Tuesday to Wednesday when receiving the Oklahoma City Thunder. Unless he reserves that for the next meeting, on Thursday night to Friday, against the Milwaukee Bucks. It would be an incredible wink since Abdul-Jabbar had started his career in Wisconsin (1969 to 1975 with a title) before becoming a Lakers legend (from 1975 to 1989 with 5 titles).
But after that encounter he ended “extremely tired”, James had other concerns. Like seeing his Lakers (25 wins-29 losses) now pointing to two wins from the last qualifying spot for the play-in, occupied by … New Orleans, their evening opponent (27 v.-27 d.) . “I just want to win. We play the right way and then we see what happens.”, he evaded a little before getting annoyed with a question about the potential arrival of Kyrie Irving (who asked the Brooklyn Nets to trade him) with whom he played for three seasons in Cleveland. Believing that, given the player, it was a dumb question to ask if he could help the Lakers. But all this commotion can’t be an excuse for the Lakers. “It shouldn’t be a problem, the closing of the transfer market, it happens every year, a assené James. You go out there and focus on what you have to do, no matter what. »
