HOUSTON — When you’re just about perfect at 41 years old, it looks like this: A thick black beard, a thinning crewcut and a pair of eyes that have seen more than anyone in league history, somehow still living above the rim like Wednesday night in Houston.
Playing in his 1,610th career game — one shy of tying Robert Parish’s record for most ever in league history — LeBron James made 13 of his 14 shots from the field to score 30 points in the Lakers’ 124-116 win against the Rockets. James’ only miss came when he had shot blocked as he tried to draw a foul.
He dunked six times in the win and tied the most efficient scoring performance of his career, when he went 13-of-14 in a 99-94 win over Charlotte. That game was played in 2013. James was on the Heat. Charlotte’s team was known as the Bobcats. And his youngest current teammate, his son Bronny, was 8 years old.
Postgame, he sat with both of his feet in an ice bucket with ice packs wrapped around his side and right elbow.
“Look at me right now. Right now I feel like s—-. Right now,” James said. “But in the game, I felt pretty good. Before the game I didn’t feel that great. I mean I was yawning and tired and telling myself — I was literally just like talking to myself like ‘Come on, here we go. Let’s figure it out. Let’s get through it.’”
He more than got through it.
James made all eight of his first-half shots — just the second time he opened a game with a perfect field-goal percentage on eight attempts. Strangely enough, the first time he had a perfect 8-of-8 half came exactly 15 years ago — on March 18, 2011, in a Heat win against the Pacers.
“I was 12,” Deandre Ayton said, stunned.
His dunks were sensational, one coming when he jumped from well outside the restricted area for his signature one-handed jam.
“I can touch the rim still. I can’t jump for three days after,” 41-year-old coach JJ Redick joked. “… Watching him makes me feel like a loser.”
Since returning to the Lakers after a three-game absence, with his role as a complimentary player to Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves clearly defined, James has made 34-of-53 from the field over that four-game span (64.2 percent).
“He was awesome tonight and I think two, part of the evolution of him on this team has been, particularly in this stretch, it’s just been his patience,” Redick said. “His patience, knowing he’s going to get the ball and he’s going to have transition opportunities and he’s going to have plays called for him.”
Dončić finished with 40 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds in adding to a late-season MVP resume. Ayton again played well with 16 points and three blocks. And Reaves finished with 14 and eight assists.
Wednesday was the Lakers seventh straight win, six coming against teams with at least .600 winning percentages. By beating the Rockets in back-to-back games, the Lakers have assured themselves the tiebreaker against Houston. They had previously clinched tiebreakers against Minnesota and Denver, finishing the regular season 7-2 against the teams with which they’re tightly packed in the Western Conference playoff race.
The Lakers flew early Thursday morning to Miami where they’ll face the Heat on the second night of a tough back-to-back.