At 11 a.m. Beijing time on February 8, the Lakers, ranked 13th in the West, will face the 12th-ranked Thunder in the West at home. In this game, the average ticket price was 4 times that of usual, and the most expensive ticket was speculated to $92,000. The reason ticket prices skyrocketed was because James could become the all-time scoring leader in this game.
In the past three games, the 38-year-old James has scored 28, 26 and 27 points, respectively. At present, James' career total has officially reached 38,352 points. As long as he scored 36 points against the Thunder today, he will surpass the 38,387-point Tiangou Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA's all-time scoring leader. How hard is it for James to score over 36 points in this game? The odds given by the authority are 1 to 2.15.
According to statistics, in 20 years of NBA career 34 times to play the Thunder, James only scored 36+ points in a single game 4 times, including 3 times in the Cavaliers and 1 time in the Heat, but he played 7 games for the Lakers against the Thunder, and the highest score was only 33 points on the road last season. However, James has scored 36+ points in six of his 15 games since entering 2023, with two of those home games against Western Conference teams the Rockets and Clippers scoring 48 and 46 points, respectively.
Judging by his recent hot form, it won't come as a surprise that James scored 36 points with the Thunder. Of course, Lakers fans don't have to worry about not being able to witness James' record-breaking moment at home, because the Lakers will still play at home in the next game, against the Bucks, where Abdul-Jabbar played. It is understood that the Lakers' recent two home games, ticket sales alone accounted for more than $70 million.
At the age of 38, there are not many people who can play in the NBA, and there is no one in ten thousand who still play a dominant performance at this age. James has 27.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.3 assists throughout his career in the regular season, but his numbers for 30 points, 8.5 rebounds and 7.1 assists this season are lower than his career stats, and the other two stats are above his career average.