AT 32, The King still rules even if his Cleveland Cavaliers are going some rough times – perhaps the roughest in his illustrious 15-year pro tenure – in the early goings of the 72nd National Basketball Association campaign.
At the very least, LeBron James’ offensive wizardry has not diminished a bit.
Going into tomorrow’s playdate against the visiting Milwaukee Bucks, the 6-foot-8 James, a forward who also has played the point for the Cavs this season due to the unstable status of playmakers Derrick Rose and Iman Shumpert due to injuries and unavailability of former Boston Celtics All-Star Isaiah Thomas until January due to hip woes, looks to extend his personal record of 801 consecutive games with at least 10 points.
The four-time NBA Most Valuable Player awardee netted 26 points in Cleveland’s 117-115 loss to the Eastern Conference cellar-dweller Atlanta Hawks (2-8) yesterday that dropped the Wine and Gold’s mark at the Quicken Loans Arena to 2-4, and 4-6 overall.
Before that, James became the second player after the eminent Michael Jordan (now the Charlotte Hornets team owner) to have a streak of 800 consecutive games with at least 10 points when he drilled in an NBA season-best 57 points in Cleveland’s 130-122 victory over the Wizards in Washington last November 3.
Only Jordan has a longer streak at 866 games (March 25, 1986-December 26, 2001 with Chicago and Washington).
Among the active streaks, Houston’s James Harden ranks behind only James with at least 10 points in 202 games in a row, including yesterday’s 137-110 home victory over Utah wherein the bearded 6-foot-5 backcourter knocked in a career-high 56 points and 13 assists in 35 minutes, going 19 of 25 from the field, including 7 of 8 from three-point territory, and 11 of 12 from the free throw line. Harden, who accounted for a total of 91 points, sat out with 7:32 left in the Rockets’ 27-point success. He fell just a point short of the all-time Rockets record of 57 set by Calvin Murphy during the 1977-78 season.
James’ 57-pointer is the second-highest output in his NBA career – just four points shy of his career-high 61 against the Charlotte Bobcats (now Hornets) on March 3, 2014 while wearing the colors of the Miami Heat (2010-14 with two NBA titles in four straight Finals trips).
In the same game against the Wizards, the prep-to-pro phenom became the youngest player ever to collect 29,000 career points in NBA history. Last season, he was the youngest to reach 27,000 and 28,000 career points.
James needs 66 more consecutive twin-digit scoring performances to surpass Jordan’s all-time mark of 866 straight games. Barring any injuries or “healthy” rests that force him to miss games, the Akron, Ohio native is on pace to move past the legendary Chicago Bulls great on March 30, 2018 against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Hall-of-Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the all-time scoring leader in NBA regular-season annals with 38,387 points and the holder of a league-record six Maurice Podoloff MVP hardware, owns the NBA’s third-longest 10 points-or-more game streak at 787 (December 4, 1977-December 2, 1987 with the Los Angeles Lakers).
Another Hall of Famer, “The Mailman” Karl Malone, has the fourth-longest skein at 575 games (December 18, 1991-March 26, 1999 with the Utah Jazz).
During his current streak, James has tallied exactly 10 points only twice – on February 7, 2007 with 57.2 seconds left in Cleveland’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers and on October 31, 2007 in the Cavs’ 18-point loss against the Dallas Mavericks when he hit double-figures scores with 2:19 remaining in the fourth quarter. (This happened in his first tour of duty with the Cavs.)
Since joining the NBA in 2003-04, James has been limited to single-digit scoring only eight times. He last scored fewer than 10 points during a regular-season win over the Milwaukee Bucks on January 5, 2007 when he was held to eight markers.
In the playoffs, including an active seven straight Finals appearances, James has finished with less than 10 points only on two occasions. He had a career playoff-low seven points in Game 5 of the 2014 Eastern Conference finals against the Indiana Pacers and eight points in Game 4 of the 2011 NBA Finals against the championship-bound Dallas Mavericks. James’ Heat were on the losing end in both games.
James owns more 50-point games in his NBA career (11) than single-digit scoring games, a distinction that only the late Wilt Chamberlain and Jordan were also able to turn in the trick.
The all-time leading scorer in NBA playoff history with 6,163 points (surpassing Jordan during the 2017 postseason), James surprisingly is not among the 21 different players to have scored 50 or more on 34 occasions as his career playoff high is “only” 49 points (twice, the most recent being in Miami’s 102-96 triumph in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Brooklyn Nets on May 13, 2014.
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