Happy birthday LeBron! The four-time NBA champion celebrated his 38th birthday with great fanfare on Friday, scoring 47 points in the Los Angeles Lakers’ victory in Atlanta (130-121). His highest total this season plus 10 rebounds and nine assists. In his 20-year career, the Californian star thus surpassed the 40-point bar for the 70th time.
“I had warned my team-mates before the game so I had to get there,” he said afterward. “But I started with 1 out of 5 shots so I wasn’t sure about anything.” LeBron James, who was playing his third game in four nights, still ended up shooting 18 of 27, including four of six game-winning shots, as well as seven of nine free throws. This new feat allows him to become the 4th player in North American league history to record 45 or more points at the ripe old age of 38, thus joining Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jamal Crawford.
The Hawks, who, thanks mainly to Trae Young’s 29 points, led by 15 points in the first two periods, then lost the opportunity. Before the start of the show James, author of 16 points in the 2nd and 4th quarter and 13 in the 3rd. James, who missed a small assist to finish with a triple-double, is more than ever in a race to double-double Abdul-Jabbar in February and become the leading scorer in NBA history. Without their other star Anthony Davis, who injured his foot, the Lakers, 13th in the West, thus improve a record (15 v., 21 a.) hitherto unflattering elsewhere.
