The passage of time remains undefeated: LeBron James's double-digit scoring streak is over.
James's run of putting up 10 or more points in every game since Jan. 5, 2007—George W. Bush was the president! The Marvel Cinematic Universe didn't even exist yet!—is not one of the greatest or most important accomplishments of his career, though it captures something essential about the nature of his decades-long dominance. Ten points is not that many points, and plenty of players can average double-digit points for a half-decade and wind up playing overseas with little ceremony. But 1,297 games is so many; it's a ton of games for even a great NBA player to merely appear in. It's 383 more games than Allen Iverson played in his whole career and 98 more than the 1,119 wins the Charlotte Hornets have in their 36 years of existence. LeBron's 1,297-game double-digit scoring streak tells the story of a remarkably consistent player, someone who has been great across three distinct eras, in every situation, for 23 years. Dwyane Wade was drafted alongside James and played for 16 years, until 2019. James scored 10 or more points in every game he played for the next five years.
And now it's over. He scored eight against the Raptors on Thursday. You could see the end of the streak coming, as James missed the start of this season with a back injury and only barely got to 10 in his team's last game against the Suns. Through most of the 1,297 games, James was rarely forced to strain for his 10. He could score 10 without ever really trying to, and the end of the streak feels fitting now, in James's 23rd season, because he's inarguably on the decline. The time of LeBron James, Superstar might have ended last year, but the end of LeBron James, NBA Player finally feels foreseeable. That one will be harder to take, and that's the horizon you can see reflecting off the end of the scoring streak.
There are parallels between the two eight-point games bracketing the streak. Cooper Flagg was two weeks old when James put up eight against the Bucks nearly 19 years ago. Footage from that game is beyond grainy, yet it shows James racking up a game-high nine assists in a comfortable win for his team.
James's team won on Thursday too, under far more dramatic circumstances. Austin Reaves ran the show, putting up 44 points on 21 shots and throwing 10 assists. In his sixth game of the season, James, who sat out the start of the season with sciatica and who turns 41 in three weeks, finally looked his age. The 4-for-17 shooting starts to tell the story, though the box score fails to account for how much of the game James spent standing around. Gone is the fearless slasher who would burst into the lane through three defenders and jam it on a center. He's been replaced by a hesitant player, someone more content to direct traffic from the top of the key. James is incredible at that stuff, and he freed Reaves with a bunch of good screens, tossing 11 assists along the way. There's still a very good player in there, especially once James gets fully back in shape, but the years are finally catching up with him.
James was blocked four times on Thursday, most alarmingly in the final minute. With the score tied, he backed Scottie Barnes down, got to his spot, creaked into his patented spin fadeaway, and had his shit summarily rejected.
As I was watching, unaware of the jeopardy his streak was in, I worried this would be LeBron's final moment of the night. Then, on the game's final play, he won it for the Lakers in the most LeBron James way possible. Reaves probed toward the right side, and when Barnes sprung a double, James was ready in the center of the floor. He could have driven at the smaller Immanuel Quickley and hoisted a relatively clean mid-ranger for the win and the preservation of the streak. Instead, he traded a good shot for a great one, flinging it to a wide-open Rui Hachimura in the corner. Bucket, ballgame.
This is a perfect way for the streak to end, because LeBron James's excellence has been defined by an unfailing preference for making the right play. This is a distinction that itself makes the streak all the more impressive: LeBron has never been a guy to prioritize his own buckets for their own sake, and yet he produced at least 10 points' worth of them for 1,297 consecutive games—80 more games than Steve Nash played in his career! That tendency, toward making the plays that win basketball games rather than engaging in post–Michael Jordan psychodrama about being the alpha dog who always takes the last shot no matter what, is what has made James such a special player. It's great to be a killer, sure, but it's better to be a winner.
Not that there's a meaningful distinction to be made there in James's case. He has scored from every spot on the floor, a feat made more impressive by his often-unreliable long-range shooting. He's been guarded by little guys, by huge guys, by all sizes of in-between guys. LeBron has never had a bad season. Basketball Reference's position estimator says he's spent at least 50 percent of at least one season at every single position on the court. What were his thoughts on the streak ending? "None," James said. "We won."
James will almost certainly start a new streak in his next game. That one will also matter less than winning, for as long as he can keep it going.
