LOS ANGELES – In his 17th season in the NBA at the age of 34, Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is leading the league in assists per game at 10.6. Although he's always been known as an elite passer, this is the first time he's gone with this kind of approach throughout an entire season, and it has worked to perfection.
On Tuesday night at the Staples Center, it was more of the same from the three-time NBA champion as he led the Lakers to victory with a season-high 40-point explosion to go along with eight rebounds and six assists. Even though he didn't come close to his assist average, he left an impression with both his passing and scoring, earning high praise from teammate Alex Caruso.
“You should tell him to do that more,” Caruso said of LeBron's scoring. “He's one of the best facilitators. He's probably the best facilitator in basketball. Him and Rondo, we have two of the best on our team. So anytime that those guys can add scoring to that, just opens up another dynamic for our team to kind of just play with more space and have guys guard more players.”
Ironically enough, it wasn't LeBron who had the best pass of the night against the visiting New Orleans Pelicans. Caruso earned that honor with a slick between the legs pass to James, who went on to posterize former Lakers teammate, Josh Hart.
As LeBron has done on more than one occasion this season, the perennial All-Star talked about his budding chemistry with Caruso on the basketball floor.
“Myself and AC, we work very well together,” LeBron said. “He has eyes in the back of his head, and for me to be able to finish, it was a really good, momentum-play for our ball club, and the fans loved it. Happy to be a part of it.”
Caruso, as expected, thinks the pass between his legs to a driving LeBron was the highlight of the night.
“Obviously, I liked the one where I threw it to LeBron; he dunked on [Josh Hart],” Caruso on his favorite highlight of the night. “J Hart did his best to get out of the way. Obviously, that's probably my favorite because I was involved in it, but we had a lot of them tonight. Any time LeBron scores 40, you have quite a few of those [highlights].”
The 25-year-old guard finished with eight points, eight assists, three rebounds, two blocks, and a steal. He had a solid night in only 17 minutes on the floor ending with +20 and two of the best highlights of the night.
Along with the dish to LeBron, Caruso also had an epic block on former Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball. Caruso didn't have numbers that jump off the stat sheet, but he definitely left his mark during his limited time on the floor.
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