LeBron James is 47-7 all-time vs. Charlotte. On Monday, with 43 points, he showed why
It had been more than four years since The LeBron Show came to Charlotte, but on Monday night it was as good as it’s ever been.
At age 38, in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 121-115 victory against the Charlotte Hornets, LeBron James played all of his roles to perfection.
Scorer. Playmaker. Marvel. And elder statesman about all subjects sports-related.
LeBron scored 43 points, had 11 rebounds and dished out six assists during another extraordinary performance. He had one reverse dunk on a fast-break alley oop in which he looked very much like the LeBron from 10 or 20 years ago. He was peerless and ageless, playing the most minutes (39:33) of anyone on the floor and whipping the team Michael Jordan owns just like he always has taken delight in doing.
LeBron — and I’ll call him that throughout this column because he’s a first-name superstar — has now played games against the Charlotte NBA franchise 54 times throughout his career.
His record in those games is an astonishing 47-7.
He has beaten the Hornets so thoroughly and for so long that what happened Monday night was no surprise. LeBron drew a sellout crowd of 19,210 to Charlotte on the day after New Year’s Day, and then bowled his way through the Hornets, getting to the rim over and over and shooting 16-of-21 inside the 3-point line on a variety of layups, dunks and mid-range fallaway jumpers that were almost balletic.
The only thing LeBron didn’t do well was shoot 3-pointers. He was 0-for-5 on those. Otherwise, he was “magnificent,” to use Lakers coach Darvin Ham’s word, scoring 43 just a couple of days after he had scored 47 on his 38th birthday.
After the win, LeBron was asked to comment on the horrible injury to Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin. He had already seen the replay in the locker room and gave an eloquent and compassionate answer, saying it had been the correct decision to postpone the Monday Night Football game after Hamlin had collapsed on the field and was administered CPR before being taken to a hospital.
“It’s a terrible thing to see,” LeBron said. “And I wish nothing but the best for that kid.”
It was the first time a Charlotte crowd had seen LeBron play against the Hornets since Dec. 15, 2018, as injuries and COVID had conspired to keep him away from the Queen City for too long. But even though the Lakers (16-21) aren’t very good this year, LeBron remains great enough that he can lead a win over Charlotte (10-28) on most nights. With Anthony Davis out of the lineup due to injury, the Lakers are relying on their 38-year-old superstar to do nearly everything.
“At this point, the game has completely slowed down for him where he can see 3-4 plays ahead,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said of LeBron. “.... And we kind of rode him. We called a couple of timeouts to give him some breathers. I was looking at him like, ‘I want to come get you (out of the game)’ and he keeps saying, ‘I’m good, I’m good.’ I just want to ride him, and he allows you to do that because he takes such great care of himself.”
Now the NBA’s second-leading scorer trailing only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, LeBron was asked afterward what it felt like to have back-to-back games of 40-plus points at age 38, compared to how it felt at age 18 when he first entered the NBA.
“At 18, you’re just going off straight-up energy,” LeBron said. “Playing free, jumping all over the place. (It was like) I’m more athletic than everybody. I’m faster than everybody… Now, at 38, it’s mental for me. How much rest I can get day to day. Make sure I get the right food in me. ... At 18, you don’t need to worry about getting eight or nine hours of sleep.”
Then LeBron left Spectrum Center, presumably in search of some correct food and a bed that would give him nine good hours of sleep.
This story was originally published January 3, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
