LeBron James posted a balligami on Sunday against the Dallas Mavericks, becoming the first player in NBA history to finish a game with exactly 30 points, 15 assists and nine rebounds.
You could point out here that there have been 97 other games in NBA history in which a player has reached at least each of those thresholds. I would counter with the fact that James is 41 years old and that the second-oldest player on that list is also LeBron James. And so is the third. No player not named LeBron James has reached those landmarks after his 33rd birthday. Balligami is a young man’s game. James should know. He’s now done it 58 times in his career.
What happened Sunday was a staple of his career. Historic performance. Undermanned roster. Frustrating loss. These were the very circumstances James was supposed to have escaped. He’d settled in wonderfully to a supporting role for the Lakers, who lost just twice in March and appeared primed for a real playoff push. The roster was designed around ball-handling. Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves were supposed to hoard the usage. But now that they’re hurt, the burden James has shouldered for most of his career is suddenly back on his, well, back.
No matter who the Lakers play in the first round, they are going to be underdogs. There are no illusions to be made here. They are not winning a championship in their current condition, nor are they winning a round unless they happen to run into a team as injured as they are. Reaves, on a four-to-six-week timeline, is probably out through at least the end of the first round. Grade 2 hamstring strains, the injury Dončić is rehabbing from, typically recover at roughly the same rate. He’s currently in Spain seeking experimental treatment to speed up that recovery. Doing so probably poses far more risk than reward, but he’s trying, and any real postseason hopes the Lakers harbor rely on his eventual return.
It seems unrealistic to expect James to win a series by himself. He’s certainly done it before, but not in his 40s. The goal for now is to buy time. Win a few games. Keep the first-round series going long enough to give Dončić a chance. With no Reaves, that means it’s superhero LeBron or bust, an ironic predicament considering how long he’s been working to prevent this exact scenario.
James has wanted to wind down his usage for some time. As far back as 2017, he said he was ready to hand the keys of the Cavaliers over to Kyrie Irving. Magic Johnson intentionally built LeBron’s first Lakers roster around ball-handling, and the Russell Westbrook trade was based on a recommendation from James himself. He kept trying to scale back. It kept not working. Only Reaves’ stunning development into a star and the even more unimaginable Dončić trade were able to set him up for the lighter role he’d spent years angling for. James is a notorious control freak on the floor. At age 41, he seemed perfectly happy deferring as the Lakers rolled through March.
It’s part of what made the injuries so gutting. James had finally settled into the role he’d spent years seeking and potentially gotten the sleeper contender he wanted last offseason. It was all taken away in a single night in Oklahoma City. And then Sunday, he was right back where he started: attempting to singlehandedly will a decimated roster to a win that would eventually prove unattainable. He could be forgiven for having flashbacks to the 2015 Finals he spent without Irving or Kevin Love.
The 22 shots James took against the Mavericks were the most he’s attempted since a December game against the Clippers (played without Reaves), and his 15 assists were a season high. It was a worthwhile reminder that James still has this in him. He leveled up in the postseason a year ago, most notably scoring 38 points in Game 3 of the first-round loss to Minnesota, but largely serving as the duct tape holding together the otherwise falling-apart Laker defense throughout the series. He can’t do it for 82 games anymore. He might not even be able to do it for seven. But if he can do it a few times, maybe he can keep the team afloat long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
It’s the silver lining of these disastrous injuries, less so for James than for us as basketball viewers. We’re nearing the end of LeBron’s legendary career. That end might come in a few weeks. It might come in a year. But his decades of dominance over Father Time are coming to an end and everyone knows it. It seemed throughout March that the decline would be gradual and graceful, the acceptance of a long-sought role reduction that would allow him to continue to contribute to winning as long as he saw fit. That path is still available to him. Hopefully we see him take it as far as he’d like next season and beyond.
But knowing that we’re running out of LeBron, there’s something special about seeing him back in this place again. On paper, the Lakers are dead in the water. They have no chance of staying alive long enough for Dončić and Reaves to return. They are going to get eliminated swiftly in the first round. But we’ve been watching James do the impossible for 23 years now. We’ve seen him win games and series he had no business winning before. Now we get to see him try to do it one last time. One last attempt at the heroics we’ve been accustomed to for decades before he hangs up his cape forever.
He will almost certainly fail. This shouldn’t be possible. But neither should a 41 year old posting 30-point balligamis. We’ve long since moved beyond the realm of usual expectations when it comes to LeBron. What’s one last miracle for a player who’s already produced so many?
