The Los Angeles Lakers may be struggling to win games during the 2021-22 NBA season, but LeBron James is playing like an MVP.
Whatever the Lakers have needed him to do, James has answered the call. That includes taking over for a huge scoring outing or doing the dirty work playing the center position all at the same time on some nights. Keep in mind, he’s doing that while running the offense.
James is coming off a season-high 43-point outing against the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday—making him the oldest player with a 40-point, 10-rebound performance since Michael Jordan.
LeBron James has scored at least 30 points in each of his last seven outings en route to averaging 36 points within the stretch and became the oldest player in NBA history to average 30 points per game for a whole month.
“I literally try to prepare my mind and my body and my soul on how I can stay young in a young man’s game,” James said (via ESPN). “Sometimes you do have to remind people that you can still do what you do at a high level, and I’ve just been blessed, very blessed and continue to put the work in. Because that’s what it all boils down to. It boils down to putting the work in and everything else will take care of itself.”
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James finished the month of December averaging 30.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 6.5 assists but the Lakers went 6-8 during this stretch. Following his recent is averaging 28.6 points per game on the season—the most he’s averaged in a single-season since 2009 as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Perhaps most intriguing of all is the level of efficiency James has achieved while scoring at such a high volume. He’s producing 1.097 points per possession (PPP) on the season and ranks 3rd among the 34 players that have logged at least 500 possessions.
“I’m not a guy that just goes out and just sees if I can jack a bunch of shots,” said James. “I want to be efficient every single night or anytime I’m playing. So as long as the streak I’ve been on, as far as my scoring, I’ve been extremely efficient as well. I take way more pride in that than the scoring. That’s just who I am as a basketball player.”
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The Lakers will need to find a way to win games to move up the Western Conference standings and ultimately to establish a rhythm entering the playoffs. How they do that appears unclear at the moment and may require external changes to the roster.
In the meantime, LeBron James will keep playing as one of the NBA’s top talents doing what he can to will the Los Angeles Lakers to victories.
