LeBron James had 50 points for the second time in three games to rally the Lakers to victory, leading coach Frank Vogel to say the NBA « has never seen a player at this stage of his career do what he’s doing. »
LOS ANGELES — LeBron James continues to redefine the standard for what a star is capable of at such a late stage of his career. James,37, scored 50 points for the second time in his past three games in lifting the Lakers to a much-needed 122-109 win over the Washington Wizards on Friday. The win came six days after James scored 56 against the Golden State Warriors, which was also a victory for L.A. The rub, of course, is that while the Lakers are 2-0 since the All-Star break when James goes for 50-plus points, they’re 0-6 in the rest of their games and are still only No.9 in the Western Conference at 29-37. In a season when the Lakers haven’t given fans much of a reason to want to pay for tickets to see them, James received a rare « MVP! MVP! » chant from a sellout crowd at Crypto.com Arena. He said he appreciated the reception, considering how often boos have been heard in the building. « Listen, the Laker faithful knows when bad basketball is being played and they know when good basketball is being played. They have the right to have any response they want, » James said. « They’ve seen so many great teams, so many great individuals…. So for me, being a part of this franchise, I feel like I just try to give them an opportunity to have memorable nights as well. « Try to give them something to cheer for, give them something to feel good about on a nightly basis, and I know it hasn’t been as great as they would like for it to be this year, but you take the small wins when they come. » L.A. appeared to be heading toward another loss, down by nine early on in the third quarter, when James got red-hot. Midway through the period, in a stretch that took less than two minutes of gametime, he scored 12 straight points for the Lakers to give them control of the game and stir the crowd into a frenzy. And he did it in a variety of ways, starting the flurry with an 18-foot fadeaway, followed by an and-one layup, then a pull-up 3 from 31 feet.
