Right now, the Lakers are the hottest garbage. Bourbon Street has refuse on it the day after a big event. They are 10 games below.500 and are fighting for a final chance to impress their home crowd in the first of two play-in games. Russel Westbrook is firing off rebukes to his detractors like they're pull-up 3s with 15-plus seconds left on the shot clock. Anthony Davis has an injury. I don't have a joke for him.
Every night, the team is trying to overcome the weaknesses of the other player. The only reason to watch them is to see if they can score 50 or surpass a milestone.
It makes sense that he has been trying to do the latter two for about a month. It's the only way this season is going to matter to him. If he were to win the scoring title, he would be the oldest player to do so by three years. The oldest player to ever win one? Michael Jordan was 34.
It is an impressive accomplishment. He is a lot of people's GOAT because of his longevity and durability. After James breaks, the haters should prepare themselves for the ceremony, as he will likely break the scoring record. I don't know how they're going to finish the game after the confetti drops, and I don't know how they're going to do it.
He is going to win the scoring title this year. He is at an even 30 points per game, with two other players threatening him, and he is attempting the third most shots of his career. Why else would he be doing this? That's right, more information for the GOAT debate.
The Lakers have caught fire and gotten healthy recently, but unlike the Bucks, they have caught fire and gotten healthy recently as well. The 126-98 win over Chicago limits the minutes and shot attempts of Milwaukee's Giannis. He scored 25 points on 12 shots in 30 minutes, five points, 6.5 attempts, and a few minutes below his season averages.
He now has to make sure James Harden gets his fill, as much as he would like to see Embiid scorch the league from here on out. In the 25 games before Harden joined the lineup, he failed to score 25 points only twice. Since Harden arrived, he has failed to score 25 times in 12 contests.
If it wasn't in pursuit of self-adulation and if a scoring title wasn't trumpeted by his fans as if it was an actual title, then what LeBron is doing at his age is remarkable and would be celebrated as such. The twilight of Jordan's career, which was his time in Washington, was most likely as annoying for his detractors as the scoring title race is for people who don't like him.
The way fans enjoyed George Gervin-David Thompson scoring race in 1977-78 is what makes this one of the better scoring titles races I can remember. The Lakers are a grease fire of his own creation, so everything he does this season is about his legacy.
If this was a fully healthy Lakers team, would he be chasing the scoring title? The team's construction is flawed, but probably not. It feels like a guy in search of an attaboy because his original goal of chasing another Larry O'Brien trophy was ruined by Jordan.
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