LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers have now won four straight games with the team getting the best of Damian Lillard's Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night at the Staples Center. Along with winning a fourth straight game and seemingly coming together as a unit, the Lakers also saw history be made with one great player passing another in a prestigious category.
LeBron James passed Lakers legend Wilt Chamberlain for fifth on the NBA's all-time scoring list. The three-time NBA champion put his stamp on this game with perhaps his best performance in purple and gold with a season-high 44 points to go along with 10 rebounds and nine assists.
Following an incredible performance by James against the visiting Blazers, Lonzo Ball talked about his teammate's historic night in the locker room.
“I grew up watching him do that, so it was pretty cool to be on the floor with him, just being out there,” Ball said of James. “I didn’t know he had the numbers he had tonight, but, obviously, he had a great game and the stats showed in the end.”
James, who now sits behind Michael Jordan on the scoring list, talked about Chamberlain and the impact he had on the game.
“One of the most dominant forces we ever had in our game along with Shaq, one of the greatest Lakers to ever play the game, 100-point scorer, one of the greatest scorer-rebounders ever,” James said of Chamberlain. “He played this game multidimensionally. He was the type of athlete that—people had never seen something like that in that era. Just dominant in all walks of life, not only basketball but period.”
The veteran forward came into this game against the Blazers with a different kind of aggressiveness that Lakers fans had yet to see from the perennial All-Star. He was determined to make it a memorable night and he was able to do just that while propelling the team to an 8-6 record and distancing themselves from an ugly start to the season.
The Lakers will now go on the road to play the next three games away from the Staples Center. James and company will face the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat before taking on the Cleveland Cavaliers a day before Thanksgiving Day in LeBron's first game against his old team since he made the decision to leave back in July.
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