The Lakers have no chance of playing off the playoffs with only one suspense: Does Zhan Huang really have to attack the scoring king?

On April 5, Beijing time, the Lakers lost miserably to the Suns away from home, officially announcing that they did not qualify for the playoffs, and the only suspense this season was whether LeBron James could win the scoring champion.

James missed the game today due to an ankle injury, and Embiid faced the Pacers, slashing 45 points, breaking the average score to 30.42 points per game, surpassing Zhan Huang to rise to the top of the scoring list, but the gap between the two is still only 0.15 points. James only needs to play two more games to meet the attendance requirements and still have a chance to regain the first place.

The question is, with the determination of not qualifying for the play-offs and having been plagued by injuries recently, does James really have to fight with injuries and impact the scoring champions?

How can James win the scoring champion?

This season's competition for the top scorer is the fiercest ever. Until the final week of the regular season, there are still three players entangled with each other at the same time, and anyone can claim the top spot in the scoring list through an explosive scoring performance.

As of the deadline, there was only a 0.53-point gap between the top three players in the league's scoring list, of which Embiid was temporarily in first place with 30.42 points, James was in second place with 30.27 points, and although Alphabet Brother only scored 18 points because the Bucks played the Bulls without blood today, pulling down the data, he still averaged 29.89 points per game.

In addition, Kevin Durant, who also averaged 29.90 points per game, should have joined the competition, but was disqualified due to insufficient attendance and was automatically excluded.

There is only a 0.53-point gap between the top three on the scoring list, which is also the closest in the entire NBA history. As early as the 1985-86 season, Dominique Wilkins, the "essence of human cinema", took the top scorer with 30.33 points, but there was only a 0.53 point gap between him and third-place Alex Inglish (29.80 points), and Adrian Dantley (29.83), who was in second place at the time, was 0.5 points behind Wilkins.

A key reason Wilkins was able to laugh to the end that year was that he scored 57 points in the penultimate game of the regular season! As a result, the gap between the two strong competitors and the two strong competitors was widened.

Let's not consider the alphabet brother for the time being, just discuss the two-person competition between Embiid and James: In the history of the NBA, there has only been one time in the history of the NBA that the gap between the top two in the scoring list is less than the current gap between James and Embiid (0.15 points), that is, in the 1977-78 season, George Gervin finally beat David Thompson (27.15) with an average of 27.22 points per game, winning his first scoring title.

That year, the Iceman narrowly defeated Skywalker by 0.07 points, and the two men fought each other on the final day of the regular season, becoming a legend - Thompson, who came first, slashed 73 points, and the average score per game temporarily surpassed Gwynn to rise to the first place in the league, and the latter had to score at least 59 points to regain the scoring throne. In the ensuing game, Gervin went on a killing spree to set a career-high 63 points, ending the dramatic competition.

James is currently 0.15 points behind Embiid, and to close that gap, he only needs to score 40 points in the next game. However, according to the league's scoring king's requirements for attendance, James still has to play at least two games (70% attendance, which is 58 games according to 82 games) to be eligible to compete, and if the difference of 0.15 points is averaged in these two games, James needs to score a total of 70 points in two games to make the season average score surpass Embiid.

Of course, there is a premise here that Embiid keeps his current average of points per game unchanged. But in fact, the 76ers still have three games to play, and Embiid's final scoring average per game is likely to be further improved, of course, it is also possible to reduce it on the current basis. Referring to the precedents of those "Immortal Fighting Methods" in history, no one can predict the outcome until the last moment.

Simply put, if James wants to hit the scoring champion this season, he must play at least two of the last three regular season games, and must ensure a high score output in order to take the initiative into his own hands.

What does the scoring king mean to James?

James surpassed Carl Malone in career scoring in the Lakers' game against the Wizards on March 20 to rise to second all-time, and if all goes well, he can surpass Tiangou Abdul-Jabbar next season and be crowned the all-time scoring champion. But interestingly, when it comes to the best scorer of all time, his name is rarely mentioned.

Note that James didn't rely solely on the accumulation of games to climb all the way up the all-time scoring chart to where he is today. His career scoring average (27.13 points) is also in the top five in history, behind Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, and Kevin Durant.

The reason why people often habitually forget James when discussing the best scorers of all time is because as one of the most versatile players in history, he can do much more than just score. Therefore, everyone subconsciously ignored his strength and achievement in scoring.

James is certainly well aware of this, but he is still grumpy about it. "When people talk about the best scorer of all time, they never mention my name, which makes me angry." He admitted when he recently participated in the show. According to this speculation, he will not be indifferent to the title of scoring king.

James once won the scoring championship once, and that was in 2008, 14 years ago. At that time, the Cavaliers lineup was shabby, and the second leader, Irgoskas, averaged only 14.1 points per game this season, while James was only 23 years old at the time, and he averaged 30 points per game this season, beating Bryant (28.3 points) and taking the top score.

Although James has won the scoring champion, if he is crowned again this year, there will still be many special meanings.

First, if the 37-year-old James can win the leading scorer, he will become the oldest leading scorer ever in the NBA. The record's previous holder was James' idol and his main target, Michael Jordan, who was 35 years old when he won his last scoring title in 1998. James has the opportunity to continue to improve this record by 2 years.

In addition, if James wins the leading scorer this season, it will also set a record for the longest span between two leading scoring seasons of the same player. Interestingly, the holder of this record is also Jordan. Jordan first won the top scorer in 1987, 11 years after he was last won in 1998.

If James wins the scoring champions this year, he will also join Chamberlain and O'Neal as the only three players in NBA history to have won scoring kings on different teams. In addition, he will become the first Lakers player to win the scoring king after Kobe Bryant in the 2006-07 season.

James has countless records of stats and honors in his brilliant career, but the record related to scoring has a very different meaning for him. James, who is "not known for scoring", can have so many historical scoring records, and it is obvious that his personal evaluation will be a big plus.

How meaningful is it to not make the playoffs?

Ideally, James won the scoring championship at the age of 37, and single-handedly led the struggling Lakers to fight back into the playoffs, which will be a history of singing and tears, which will be repeatedly praised by future generations.

But reality is often full of regrets, James tried his best, and the Lakers still missed the playoffs, which will inevitably make the scoring king's (if he can win) much darker. But is it meaningless not to be the scoring champion in the playoffs? Not necessarily.

First of all, there is no causal relationship between James's high score performance and the Lakers' poor record. On the contrary, the reason why James set a new scoring record per game in his 19th season is precisely because the struggling Lakers need him to stand up and personally complete the shooting score.

In fact, the Lakers only achieved a 4-17 record after All-Star Weekend, and james averaged 45 points per game in 4 games they won!

This season, James scored 40+ in three games, the Lakers won all; when he personally scored more than the season average, the Lakers' record was 13 wins and 14 losses, and when his score was lower than the season average, the Lakers' record was only 12 wins and 17 losses; in addition, in the 23 games that James was absent, the Lakers lost 6 wins and 17 losses. Such a data comparison is enough to explain the necessity of James's crazy scoring.

With no hope in the play-offs and an injury, james will indeed face some doubts if he continues to play in order to meet the scoring king's requirements for attendance. But from another point of view, this is also to pick the fruit that is about to ripen after their own hard work, which is actually understandable.

And, without a playoff leading scorer, it may be of limited significance as it stands. But many years later, when people measure all this in terms of history, the results may be different.

Time will slowly wash away all background information, and real honors will forever be sealed in the annals of history, not erased by memory. 2>1, this is the simplest mathematical problem, not to mention, and the series of records mentioned above, are unprecedented and may not have the great achievements of those who came after, and are an important chip in judging James's historical position.

The 37-year-old James is a special case that cannot find any reference object in the history of the NBA, and he is facing a unique opportunity that can be encountered but not sought. Before that, no one, at such an age, still had the opportunity to hit the scoring champion.

rush? Or not rushing? That's a problem.