LeBron James somersaulted onto his feet and pounded his chest.
With the kind of birthday energy normally reserved for a toddler after a big slice of cake, James had just flown all over the court, chasing down a tipped pass, missing a layup, running back onto the court and finally scoring, getting fouled in the process.
On the day he turned 38 years old, James looked like anything but a tired, old, road-weary veteran. “There are times when I’m on the floor where I do feel like a kid again,” he admitted later that night.
Fans in the crowd howled when he slammed, they gasped when he sprinted up and down the court and they cheered when he hit a clutch, deep three late in the fourth to give him 40 points.
And when they saw him hang in the air longer than three Atlanta defenders to score — they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
Before the game ended with James scoring 47 in a 130-121 Lakers win, there was just one last thing to chant — “MVP.”
“To see that performance from him,” Thomas Bryant said, “you just don’t want to take greatness for granted like that.”
In the win, James became the third player to score 47 or more after turning 38 and the first to do so with 10 rebounds or nine assists.
Lakers forward LeBron James dunks during the second half.
(Hakim Wright Sr. / Associated Press)
“I’ve been scoring 30 and it hasn’t worked so … try 40,” James said. “And we got a win.”
The Lakers overcame a 15-point first-half deficit beginning with a huge second quarter from James, who created more than 82% of the Lakers’ points in the quarter when his scoring (16) is added to the 16 points created from his seven assists.
Down the stretch, Russell Westbrook, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Dennis Schroder and Bryant all made big plays to seal the win — the Lakers’ second on this trip.
Bryant had 19 points and 17 rebounds, Toscano-Anderson, in his second game back after recovering from a sprained ankle, hit all three of his shots and Westbrook had 14 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds.
The win came two days after James expressed his weariness with losing at this stage in his career, especially while playing well. Pregame, Lakers coach Darvin Ham said the statements helped propel the team.
“I think it motivates, I think it inspires them to go out and do their jobs,” Ham said. “And again, our thing is you don’t have to play outside of yourself. Just play within the confines of the system and allow the game, allow the execution to help you. … He’s one that tries to empower his teammates so I don’t think anyone took that as a slight. I think they took it as, ‘You know what? He’s right. We need to pick up our stuff up and really try to apply it in unison.’”
Help could be coming, as Anthony Davis said his injured foot was progressing from a bit of a three-pronged issue — a bone spur fracturing off the navicular bone in his right foot, where he also has a stress reaction.
Davis said the pain had subsided to a two on a scale of one to 10. He decided against surgery to remove the bone spur for now, though he acknowledged he’d probably need the procedure after the season.
For now, the big priority is monitoring the stress reaction to keep it from becoming a stress fracture in the navicular bone — a serious injury that could cause him to miss up to seven months.
“It’s healing pretty quickly,” Davis said Friday. “So when we get back to L.A., we’ll do another image of the foot, and see how far it’s healed since the last time. … If I see that it’s healed properly, or enough where I can go start ramping up on the court, then we’ll start that process.”
Until then, as long as the Lakers have James, they’ll have a shot.
Friday, with his wife and his mother in the crowd, he delivered. After signing his jersey and giving it to rapper 2 Chainz, he jogged off the floor with his hands in the air, the crowd showering him with cheers one more time.
“Obviously, throughout these seasons, there are so many different narratives, roller-coasters that you have to navigate through, frustrations, good times and bad times, just try to stay as even keel and as sharp as I can be throughout the course of a full season,” James said. “And when the game is here and it’s time to prepare and time to prep, keep the main thing the main thing.”
The main thing Friday was James delivering another defining moment — one in a season that could use a lot more like this.
