How LeBron James continues to raise the bar in his 21st season: ‘It’s me vs. Father Time’

Father Time remains undefeated, but LeBron James keeps him on the ropes.

By the time the 2023-2024 NBA season kicked off in Denver, James was already playing at a higher level than any player in league history after his 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 already achieved unprecedented levels of efficiency and longevity during his career at the GOAT level, has somehow become even more efficient in 2023-2024.

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 is recording 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 three-point range nearly matches his career-best 40.6 percent from the 2012-13 season.

How does James perform optimally in his career at his age, while dealing with a left calf contusion?

“I don’t know,” James told reporters on Sunday after the Los Angeles Lakers’ 105-104 win over the Houston Rockets. “Show up. Show up, put the work in 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 largely because of his play. Without his late-night heroics, the Lakers’ slow start could have easily been disastrous. Instead, the Lakers are 8-6 and moving up.

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-Minus (BPM), eighth in Player Efficiency Rating (PER ) and 13th in Win Shares. He currently projects as an All-NBA second-team forward, if not a first-team selection. He’s still easily a top-10 player, a remarkable achievement.

James wears his cape when the score is within five points in the last five minutes of a match. He ranks 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 shot at least 10 in such situations have tried (70.0 percent). The Lakers are 5-2 in the seven games James has played in which some minutes have been played.

Most recently, James scored a season-high 35 points to help the Portland Trail Blazers in the fourth quarter in a hostile In-Season Tournament setting last Friday. Two nights later, he dropped a season-high 37 points to Dillon Brooks and the Rockets, scored 23 points in the second half and iced the game with the free throw lead with 1.9 seconds left after he spun past Brooks and attacked three players. Rockets defenders in the paint.

“He was outstanding,” head coach Darvin Ham said of James’ performance against Houston. “The LeBron we have all come to know and love over the past 21 years.”

Only James plays differently than he normally does. With the Lakers handing the keys to the offense more to D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves, James operates more as a dangerous threat off the ball, where he can utilize his basketball IQ, strength and athleticism in space. James creates his own offense less often than ever. The percentage of his 2-point (48.0 percent) and 3-point baskets (75.9 percent) that are assisted by others is a career high, according to Basktball-Reference.com.

His playstyle usage has also increased marginally in several notable categories: he is being used more off screens (from 1.9 percent last season to 3.6 percent this season), as the roller in pick-and-rolls (up from 4.5 percent last season). to 5.9 percent this season), in transfers (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 NBA.com player tracking statistics.

While most of these percentages are small increases, they add up to a different offensive approach for James.

No Laker has benefited more from the Lakers’ increased spacing — at least when their new five-out offense is functioning properly — than James. Los Angeles has gradually used him in more creative ways, taking advantage of his ability to read his own defender, teammates and the rest of the defense with lightning speed.

Here’s an example: Reaves passes the ball to Jaxson Hayes and cuts away to screen James, who immediately transitions to receiving a dribble handoff from Hayes. With a lead from the first play, James shoots past Sacramento King big man Domantas Sabonis and commits a shooting foul.

In this variation of a similar play, Russell brings the ball up the floor as Anthony Davis looks for James to flash to the other side of the arc. Russell bounces an entry pass to Davis and then sets a screen for James, freeing James to take a handoff from Davis, a pump fake as defenseman David Roddy recovers and then takes one dribble to get to the rim end. (Davis’ timely throw certainly helps, as it takes his defender, Bismack Biyombo, out of contention.)

Sometimes the Lakers will be even more direct in taking James off a screen downhill. This time, Reaves dribbles down the right side of the floor and Christian Wood screens to James on the other side, allowing him to blitz, cut or curl depending on how the defender reacts to the screen. In this case, James takes a broader approach before accelerating toward the basket, using one dribble and his shoulder to free up Orlando Magic big man Goga Bitadze for the finger roll.

“He’s playing phenomenal right now,” Davis said Sunday. “His shot falls. He attacks the paint, makes the right reads and does it on the defensive end. He does it all for us and it’s our job to try to compliment him and help him make shots or make positions.”

Forty-seven percent of James’ shot attempts this season came at the rim, his highest share from that distance since 2018-19, his first season in Los Angeles, according to Cleaning the Glass. That includes more dunks — or at least attempting to — with 7.3 percent of his field goal attempts being dunks, also his highest percentage since the 2018-19 season (8.1 percent).

“(My teammates) made fun of me and said I put the ball on the ground too much when I got a free 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 deadly beyond the arc, which is an important development for the Lakers’ crunch-time and playoff offense.

This is a more deceptive set: Russell and Davis play a quick two-man game, diverting the Trail Blazers’ attention from James, who lines up behind a Davis screen and slots in an open 3-pointer at the top of the arc. James’ defender, Jerami Grant, is one step behind and goes under the screen. Pop.

Opposing defenses have historically slumped their off-ball defenders to charge 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 place James on the opposite wing, one pass, where he is ready to catch and shoot, catch and drive, or pump and drive. to ride. .

This is an easy task for James, who shoots 44.4 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s.

This should be the season where James took a step back and ceded more of the offense to Davis, Reaves and Russell. But while James’ usage rate has dropped (from 33.3 percent last season to 30.2 percent this season), the Lakers are still as reliant on James as ever. They are 23.8 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor than on the bench, a huge number. They’re significantly worse on both ends without him, meaning LA has constant problems figuring out how to survive when he’s off the floor.

“It doesn’t even feel like he’s 38,” Davis said.

It doesn’t feel like James is 38 because of his production, but he’s actually five weeks away from turning 39. He has missed time due to significant injuries in four of his five seasons in Los Angeles, and his long-term health remains paramount. importance to the Lakers’ championship aspirations.

The Lakers’ plan to keep James on a minutes restriction of about 28 to 30 minutes per game lasted the entire game. James’ remarkable play and the Lakers’ early-season struggles have resulted in him playing more than 30 minutes in 10 of his 13 games. Going forward, the Lakers will need to strategically find rest for James — albeit in the form of fewer minutes or fewer games — as they did on Nov. 12 when they kept James. their 116-110 victory over the Blazers.

“The way he takes care of himself at all levels relieves some of that stress and some of that worry,” Ham said before that game. “The most important thing is that he is smart with his stretching exercises. The total minutes will be what they are depending on the nature of the game. The way we play him, the steps in which we play him, that’s what you have to take into account. And whatever you do on non-game days. … That helps us – if he can meet us halfway in that regard.”

Overall, the Lakers’ performance has not matched their 8-6 record. They are just 22nd in net ratings as of Tuesday morning, a figure that suggests a low-end Play-In or lottery team rather than a contender. They struggled shooting the ball, matching their opponents’ energy in the opening quarters, taking care of the ball and protecting the defensive glass. The rotation is restless. Important pieces remain missing.

But more often than not, it hasn’t mattered 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 shooting stretch, a newfound efficiency due to the spacing of the offense, a different level of control, or some combination of the three, James continues to inexplicably defy the aging process and carry the Lakers on his broad shoulders, with no sign of slowing down as it approaches 39.

“I’m just trying to push the envelope,” James said. “Look how far I can go with this thing. It’s me against Father Time.”

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(Top photo: Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)