The Los Angeles Lakers continued their great start to the 2024-25 NBA season with a 131-127 victory over the Sacramento Kings Saturday night, largely thanks to LeBron James’ explosive 16-point fourth quarter.
James ended the game with 32 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists.
The Lakers controlled large chunks of this game, especially in the first half. They led by as much as 15 points but went into the halftime break only up 4. The Kings slowly chipped away at the Lakers’ lead and at the end of three quarters, they were up 94-87.
Just when it seemed that the Lakers had potentially begun to let this game slip away from them, James had different ideas. In the opening 3:37 of the fourth quarter, the Lakers went on a 21-0 run and in a blink of an eye were up 108-94. James had all 16 of his fourth-quarter points during this stretch and scored or assisted on 18 of their 21 points during the run.
LeBron James Is Picking His Spots
Nobody in the game’s history has been able to play at this high level at this stage of their career that we are witnessing from James. The 39-year-old is only second player in NBA history to be playing in his 22nd season. The other is Vince Carter.
Only Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Willis, and Robert Parish, along with Carter and James have played more than 20 seasons.
One of the biggest reasons for James’ longevity has been his incredible ability to know when it’s time to take over. Even though he is still playing at an elite level, he knows he can’t play at an intense level for 48 minutes like used to. We see this, especially on defense. James will at times imitate an NFL safety and look to break things up or just stand in the corner and guard one of the lesser threats. We also see him ramp it up on defense in key possessions or moments in the game.
The hope for the Lakers is that James can be able to pick his spots more often offensively as well. Before Saturday’s game, James’ play has been decent and the moment between him and Bronny James has been the biggest talking point surrounding him so far.
Basketball-wise, Anthony Davis’ stellar start and what JJ Redick is bringing as the new head coach have probably been the big stories. That’s a good thing for Laker fans. As long as Davis can continue being the focal point offensively, and Austin Reaves takes the ball handling burden off of James, ‘The King’ can pick and choose when to be aggressive.
James scored the most points per game in the fourth quarter during the 2023-24 season with 8.1 points per game. While we shouldn’t expect what we got versus the Kings every night, if things go right for the Lakers, he should be one of the top fourth-quarter scorers again this season.
