Wednesday night’s NBA action featured a major milestone for LeBron James and the history books. The Los Angeles Lakers star moved past former Chicago Bulls great Michael Jordan to take over fourth place on the NBA’s All-Time scoring list. Unfortunately, it came during a rough game and season for King James.
As reported by ESPN, LeBron scored 31 in the latest Lakers game and was able to surpass Jordan’s career 32,292 points with a layup in the second quarter. The Denver Nuggets and Lakers, as well as the fans in attendance at Staples Center paused for a celebration of the moment to recognize James’ impressive career milestone.
Unfortunately for the home team and their fans, it comes at a time when they are falling farther out of playoff contention by the game. Wednesday night brought another loss, as the Denver Nuggets were able to show why they’re one of the top two teams in the Western Conference. The Nuggets finished out a 115-99 victory after James’ celebration earlier in the game.
Will Barton led the way with 23 points while Gary Harris contributed 19. All-Star Nikola Jokic scored 2 points, grabbed 17 rebounds, gave outright assists, and had three steals in the win.
LeBron now trails a Lakers star who helped lead the team to five NBA Championships. Kobe Bryant is in third place on the all-time scoring list with 33,643 points for his All-Star career. Above Kobe is Karl Malone with 36,928 and in the No. 1 spot is Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 38,387 points. James seems to be on pace to pass Kobe’s spot within another season. It will take several more to pass Malone and attempt to take Kareem’s spot.
Still, it comes with the Lakers’ playoff chances pretty much out the window at the moment. The team dropped to 30-35 after the loss to the Nuggets. In the Western Conference standings, they’re now 6.5 games behind the Los Angeles Clippers for the No. 8 spot. That difficult situation arrives with just 17 games to go in the season.
The Lakers’ situation is tough based on remaining schedule and injuries. Lonzo Ball has been sidelined for weeks, while Kyle Kuzma suffered an injury two games ago. Some feel that LeBron is not 100 percent himself after a Christmas Day groin injury kept him out 18 games.
Still, the show must go on for Los Angeles. The Lakers will host Kyrie Irving and the Boston Celtics for their next game. That takes place Saturday night beginning at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time with ABC televising the matchup.
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