Father Time remains undefeated, but LeBron James hangs him on the ropes.
Once the 2023-24 NBA season arrives in Denver, James is already playing at a higher level than any player in league history after their 20th season. But James has taken that distinction to another level this season.
For starters, he’s averaging more points (26.4 points per game) than the other five players who played a combined 21st season (24.0). But what’s most impressive about this 21st season is that James, who has established an unprecedented level of excellence and longevity throughout his career at the GOAT level, has somehow gotten even better in 2023 -24.
Through 13 games, James is posting career-highs in field-goal percentage (58.6 percent), 2-point percentage (68.0 percent), effective field-goal percentage (65.2 percent) and true shooting percentage (67.1 percent ). More specifically, he logged career-best shooting percentages on shots at the rim (82 percent), long mid-range jumpers (47 percent) and non-corner 3s (40 percent), according to Cleaning the Glass. His 39.7 mark from 3-point range nearly matched his career-best 40.6 percent from the 2012-13 season.
How does James pull off his best career performance at his age while dealing with a left leg?
“I don’t know,” James told reporters after the Los Angeles Lakers’ 105-104 win over the Houston Rockets on Sunday. “Show up. Show up, put in the work and then go out and trust it.”
James is showing up and playing at an MVP level for the surging Lakers, who have won five of their past six games because of his play. Without his nightly heroics, the Lakers’ slow start could easily have been disastrous. Instead, the Lakers are 8-6 and trending upward.
DEEP
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James remains elite by most advanced metrics. He is fifth in the NBA in Estimated Plus-Minus (EPM), fifth in Estimated Wins (EW), fourth in Value Over Replacement Player (VORP), sixth in Box Plus-Mins (BPM), eighth in Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and 13th in Win Shares. He currently projects as an All-NBA second-team forward at the very least, if not a first-team selection. He was still easily a top-10 player, an impressive feat.
James has a knack for tight moments, when the score margin is within five points in the final five minutes of a game. He is tied for second in the league in clutch points (38), first in clutch field goals made (14) and third in clutch field-goal percentage among the 54 players who attempted at least 10 shots in such situations (70.0 percent ). The Lakers are 5-2 in the seven games James has played featuring clutch minutes.
Most recently, James scored a then-season-high 35 points to help put away the Portland Trail Blazers in the fourth quarter in a hostile In-Season tournament setting on Friday. Two nights later, he dropped a season-high 37 points on Dillon Brooks and the Rockets, who poured in 23 points in the second half and iced the game with the go-ahead free throw with 1.9 seconds left after he -swive the Brooks and attack the three. Rockets defenders in the paint.
“He was outstanding,” head coach Darvin Ham said of James’ performance against Houston. “The LeBron we’ve all come to know and love for these 21 years.”
It’s just that James plays differently than usual. With the Lakers entrusting the keys of the offense more to D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves, James acts more as a dangerous threat off the ball, where he can use his basketball IQ, strength and athleticism in space. James is creating his own offense more often than ever. The percentage of his 2-point (48.0 percent) and 3-point baskets (75.9 percent) assisted by others are career-highs, according to Basktball-Reference.com.
His play-type usage also increased slightly in several notable categories: he was used more off screens (from 1.9 percent last season to 3.6 percent this season), as a roller in pick-and-rolls (from to 4.5 percent last season). to 5.9 percent this season), in hand-offs (from 3.4 percent last season to 6.2 percent this season) and in spot-ups (from 9.5 percent last season to 11.4 percent this season), according to player tracking by NBA.com statistics.
While most of these percentages are small upticks, they add up to a different offensive strategy for James.
No Laker has benefited more from the Lakers’ increased floor space – even when their new five-out offense is working well – than James. Los Angeles has gradually used him in more creative ways, utilizing his ability to read his own defender, teammates and the rest of the defense at breakneck speed.
Here’s an example: Reaves passes the ball to Jaxson Hayes and cuts to screen James, who immediately receives a dribble hand-off from Hayes. Early on from the initial action, James blasted Sacramento Kings big man Domantas Sabonis to draw a shooting foul.
In this variation of a similar action, Russell brings the ball up the floor while Anthony Davis checks on James for a burst on the other side of the arc. Russell bounced an entry pass to Davis and then set a screen for James, freed James to get the hand-off from Davis, pump-fake as defender David Roddy recovered and then took a dribble to finish at the rim. (Davis’ timely roll certainly helps, as it pulls his defender, Bismack Biyombo, away from the fray.)
At times, the Lakers will be more direct in bringing James down the screen. This time, Reaves dribbled down the right side of the floor and Christian Wood screened for James on the other side, allowing him to flare, cut or curl, depending on how the defender responded to the screen. This time, James took a wider approach before accelerating toward the basket, using a dribble and his shoulder to get past Orlando Magic big man Goga Bitadze for a finger roll.
“He’s playing phenomenal right now,” Davis said Sunday. “His shot is falling. He attacks the paint, makes the right reads, does it on the defensive end. He does everything for us and it’s our job to try to compliment him and help him with our shot making or playmaking.”
Forty-seven percent of James’ shot attempts this season have come at the rim, his highest share from distance since 2018-19, his first season in Los Angeles, according to Cleaning the Glass. That includes dunking more — or at least trying — with 7.3 percent of his field-goal attempts being dunks, and his highest percentage since the 2018-19 season (8.1 percent).
“(My teammates) joke about me, saying that I lay the ball out too much when I get an open lane,” James said.
Turn the corner and fly 👑 pic.twitter.com/MoQqUyhRNv
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) November 20, 2023
But James has been just as lethal from beyond the arc, which is an important development for the Lakers’ crunch-time and playoff offense.
It was a trickier set: Russell and Davis ran a quick two-man game, diverting the Trail Blazers’ attention away from James, who positioned himself to curl behind a Davis screen on an open 3. -pointer to the top of the arc. James’ defender, Jerami Grant, took a step back and went under the screen. Bang.
Opposing defenses have historically sunk their off-ball defenders to load the paint against the Lakers in the James-Davis era. When the Lakers run pick-and-rolls with Russell or Reaves as the ballhandler, they often put James on the opposite wing, one pass, where he’s ready to catch and shoot, catch and drive or pump- fake and drive. .
It’s an easy look for James, who is shooting 44.4 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s.
This should be the season James steps back and surrenders more of the offense to Davis, Reaves and Russell. But while James’ usage percentage has dropped (from 33.3 percent last season to 30.2 percent this season), the Lakers are as reliant on James as ever. They’re 23.8 points per 100 possessions that he’s better on the floor than on the bench, a massive figure. They’re noticeably worse without him on both ends, indicating LA’s continued issues figuring out how to survive when he’s off the floor.
“It didn’t even feel like he was 38,” Davis said.
It doesn’t feel like James is 38 because of his production, but he’s actually five weeks from turning 39. He’s missed time with significant injuries in four of his five seasons in Los Angeles, and his long-term health is remains of utmost importance for the Lakers’ championship aspirations.
The Lakers’ plan to keep James on a minutes restriction of roughly 28-to-30 minutes per game lasted all of one game. James’ impressive play, and the Lakers’ early season struggles, led to him playing more than 30 minutes in 10 of his 13 games. Moving forward, the Lakers will need to strategically find pockets of rest for James – whether it’s in the form of fewer minutes or fewer games – just as they did in Nov. 12 when they sat James on their 116-110 win over the Blazers.
“The way he takes care of himself at all levels, it takes away some of that stress and some of that worry,” Ham said before that game. “The biggest thing is being smart with his stretches. The total minutes will be what it is depending on the nature of the game. The way we play him, the increments in which we play him, that’s the thing you have to be mindful of. And what you do in non-games. … That helps us – when he meets us in the middle of that thing.”
In the grand scheme of things, the Lakers’ performance did not match their 8-6 record. They were just 22nd in net rating as of Tuesday morning, a mark more indicative of a low-end Play-In or lottery team than a contender. They struggled to shoot the ball, match their opponents’ energy in the first quarter, take care of the ball and protect the defensive glass. The rotation is not smooth. The main pieces remain outside.
But more often than not, it doesn’t matter because the Lakers have James on their side, the greatest player of his generation — and perhaps the greatest of all time.
Whether this stretch is just a hot shot, a newfound efficiency due to the spacing of the offense, another level of mastery or some combination of the three, James continues to inexplicably fight the aging process and bring the Lakers on his broad shoulders, without a sign. of slowing down as he approaches 39.
“Just trying to push the limit,” James said. “See how far I can take this thing. It’s me vs. Father Time.”
(Top photo: Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images)
