With the rise of a new generation of teams, traditional powerhouses in the league have experienced varying degrees of decline in their dominance this season. Teams in the East that had high win rates in recent years, such as the Bucks, 76ers, and Heat, have fallen out of the top tier. In the West, several powerhouse teams have also struggled, with the Warriors and Suns having win rates below 50%, and the Clippers and Lakers experiencing ups and downs with inconsistent performance. Especially the Lakers, despite maintaining a decent record so far (20 wins and 17 losses, ranking 7th in the West), fans who watched the games know that the Lakers struggle to win and lose decisively. Most victories are narrow, and once they lose, they completely collapse without any resistance. In a recent game, they suffered a 24-point defeat at the hands of the Spurs.
According to statistics, this is already the seventh game this season where the Lakers have lost by a margin of 20+ points. In the previous two seasons under coach Ham's tenure, the Lakers only lost six games with a margin of 20+ points. Why does the Lakers always suffer big defeats? This has something to do with their lineup. The team has few players with independent offensive capabilities, and most of the ball possession is controlled by James and Brow. The third player Reeves still has a significant gap from All-Star level players. Moreover, the Lakers' defensive capabilities are lacking, and the head coach's tactical arrangements are not appropriate. They use infinite switching defense, which inevitably leads to a defensive collapse inside once Davis is pulled outside. Now, James is also a defensive weakness, after all, he is 40 years old and cannot fully focus on defense during the game.
On the offensive end, James has also shown some signs of fatigue compared to previous years this season. His average score has dropped to 23.7 points, the lowest value since his rookie season. He often scores less than 20 points in a single game. As James himself said, he won't play for too long, maybe one or two more years, and he won't retire until his body completely breaks down. It must be said that James' career has been legendary enough. For more than 20 years, he has remained at the peak, with all-round performance in various data. In 23 years, he surpassed the legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the league's all-time scoring champion. In 24 years, he broke the 40,000-point mark in regular-season total scoring, and the "411 project" was officially completed. As long as James has not retired, his various records will continue to extend and refresh.
This season, Lao Jian has the opportunity to achieve a milestone of great value, that is, his career total score (regular season score + playoff score) is about to break through the 50,000 mark. After the last game against the Spurs, James' regular season total score reached 41,279 points, and his playoff total score was 8,162 points, with a career total score of 49,441 points, only 559 points short. James will achieve another historic feat. Calculated based on his current season average of 23.7 points, there are fewer than 24 games left before this record is achieved, which should be in the middle to late stages of the regular season. Only 559 points away! An NBA legendary record is born, unparalleled before and after, and now James is the first in history in terms of regular season total scoring, and the playoffs total scoring is also the first in history.
This is why it is said that Lao Jian's 50,000-point record is unparalleled before and after, among active players, almost no one can see James' tail lights in this data. Just talking about the playoff total scoring rankings, Jordan, ranked second in history, didn't even reach 6,000 points, which is more than 2,000 points behind Lao Jian. Among other active players' regular-season total scores, there isn't even a 30,000-point scorer, with Durant following James at 29,683 points. Of course, if we look at age, the current Doncic and the young James at the same age have similar scoring progress, but Doncic definitely can't play until he is over 40, and later Doncic can't guarantee that he will be at his peak every year and not be affected by injuries. It can be seen from physical management that Doncic is not as disciplined a player as James.
However, it must be admitted that James is indeed getting older now. The data media Basketball Reference listed the On-Off values of each player in the league this season (the comparison of the team's positive and negative values per 100 rounds when the player is on or off the court, the higher the value, the greater the impact on the team). James ranked fifth from the bottom in the NBA with -11.4. Sometimes you can see Lao Jian making consecutive mistakes on the court, unable to keep up with the defense, and showing dejected body language. For fans, whether James can win another championship is no longer the most important thing. The key is to watch more of James' games, after all, his career time left is not much. NBA veteran Gilbert Arenas talked about James, saying: "People hope that 40-year-old Jordan will play, but they demand that 40-year-old Lao Jian win the championship." What do you think, how many more seasons will James play?
