What does No. 1 scorer LeBron James look like in 2026? If Sunday's game against the Dallas Mavericks is any indication, it looks pretty good. James posted a statline of 30 / 9 / 15, which looks closer to a 2018 statline than a recent one from the NBA's all-time leading scorer.
Perhaps more notably though, the Lakers lost to the tanking Mavericks. And that might perfectly describe what LeBron as the team's primary scorer looks like in the backhalf of season 23 for him; still pretty good numbers, but not a lot of team success when he's missing his two costars in Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
LeBron's most productive basketball this season came when he fully embraced the third option role — that was a huge part in the Lakers hot streak.
But when both Doncic and Reaves missed time earlier this year with injuries, James showed that he can still score around 23 points per game on passable efficiency most nights. To keep the Lakers in the No. 3 spot in the Western Conference, he'll need to do that — and probably more — in the team's final four games, three of which are against Oklahoma City, Phoenix, and Golden State. I'm not sure how much hope remains for the Lakers to make a postseason run, but a LeBron grand finale this regular season would at least be thrilling.
Lakers will struggle to win games with LeBron as primary scoring option
It's not fair to ask for giant production in games 1620 - 1623 in his career, but that's where we are now. So, perhaps for the last time, fans will see LeBron need to do things on his own to lift his team to a goal.
It's remarkable that he can still feasibly be the top scoring option over two decades in, but when Luke Kennard and Jaxson Hayes are the two other scoring threats like they were on Sunday, it's not going to behoove much winning.
Frankly, beting any of the non-Jazz opponents left on their schedule would warrant praise for this Lakers team. Nick Smith Jr, Kobe Bufkin, and Bronny James all played minutes in a six-point game against the Mavericks. Scary hours are upon us.