By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
After banking in 56 points against the Golden State Warriors, LeBron James scored 50 points versus the Washington Wizards, in the span of one week. Both showings lifted the Los Angeles Lakers to key wins in the battle to clinch a Play-In berth as a direct spot in the Playoffs sits 10.5 games away.
James, 37, became the oldest player packing multiple 50-point showings in a single NBA season. Bernard King was 34 when he enjoyed a couple of 50-point games in 1990-91 as a member of the Washington Bullets.
Back in 2007, Kobe Bryant became the last player of the Lakers to produce 50-point showings in consecutive games at home. Individually, James had not logged multiple 50-point efforts in one single season since 2009.
He scored 12 straight points in a 22-8 run earning the Lakers a seven-point lead in the third quarter. For good measure and securing a safer distance, he added 14 more points in the last quarter.
“I was able to hit a hot streak at one point. I just tried to stay in that zone as long as possible and hit a couple,” he noted, “For us to be able to come in in the third quarter, that’s been one of our down quarters this year, held them to 23 points in that third and run off 37. It was big for our team, big for our ballclub.”
James made 18/25 field goals, including 6/9 from beyond the arc, and sank all of his eight free throws. Besides the 50-point effort, he tallied seven rebounds and six assists in 36 minutes.
“Even at his age, he’s still capable of doing incredible things like that,” said Latvian Kristaps Porzingis after his own 14-point, 14-rebound double-double fell short of the win, “Once he got going, it was really hard to stop anything he was doing.”
The Lakers and head coach Frank Vogel will be certainly seeking more brilliant performances moving into the crunch time of the 2021-22 Regular Season. Visiting the league-leading but undermanned Phoenix Suns comes up Sunday.
“He’s really good at basketball, that LeBron James,” put in Vogel, “I think what stands out to me is the league has never seen a player at this stage of his career do what he’s doing. Just an incredible, unbelievable, epic performance.”
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