LeBron James, who blitzed the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday with 46 points, adding two more records to his splendid collection, admitted to the media that it is not easy to process all these individual successes while the Los Angeles Lakers continue to lose.
“In the last two years, since we won the (2020) championship, I’ve achieved a lot of accomplishment,” he detailed in his post-game press conference.
“So, it’s been a little hard to even digest some of those accomplishments because I don’t want to celebrate them in defeat,”
Now 38-year-old and in his 20th NBA season, LeBron had a career-high 46 points (16-of-29 from the field), eight rebounds and seven assists and broke his record for three-pointers in a game with nine made (out of 14 attempts).
In addition, the Lakers star became the first player in NBA history to score 40 points against every franchise in the league.
LeBron’s umpteenth career scoring performance puts him, with 38,210 points, just 177 points shy of tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is the all-time leading scorer in NBA history with 38,387.
“I never thought I would catch Kareem in scoring, it was never something that was on my mind,” LeBron admitted.
“As it gets closer and closer, I guess I’ll feel it more and more,” he added,
“My main goal is always to play basketball the right way.”
Despite LeBron’s extraordinary numbers on Tuesday, the Lakers fell 133-115 to the Los Angeles Clippers, who have now won 10 straight games against their cross-city rivals.
LeBron said the Clippers were flawless with 19-of-38 three-pointers (15-of-23 at halftime) and stressed they had “a lot of contributions not just from the starters”, referring to second-unit backups Norman Powell and Reggie Jackson.
The Lakers trailed by 23 points at halftime and got to within 10 points in the fourth quarter, but this time they could not complete the comeback.
“We have no room for error. I said that last week,” LeBron declared.
The Lakers will have reinforcements imminently as Anthony Davis, injured since mid-December, and Rui Hachimura, signed Monday in exchange for Kendrick Nunn, are both eligible to play on Wednesday against the San Antonio Spurs.
On possible new additions, LeBron did not go into his assessment of the work of Rob Pelinka, the Lakers’ general manager.
“Rob is doing his job. That’s his job. My job is to be on the court and make sure my teammates in the locker room are ready,” he said.
