LeBron James may be 39 years of age, but one might think he’s 29, based on his play this season.
The Los Angeles Lakers superstar has speckles of gray in his beard, but other than that, he is looking like a young colt. Through Sunday, he’s averaging 25.4 points, 8.1 assists and 7.3 rebounds a game, and he’s showing no signs of slowing any time soon, even though he’s arguably playing too many minutes.
Last season at this time, it was looking like Father Time was finally catching up to him. But it is now clear that most of that was due to a foot injury that forced him to miss a month and wouldn’t fully heal until the offseason.
The big difference in James’ game this season is his greater efficiency — he’s shooting 53.3% overall and 41.6% from 3-point range after making a meager 32.1% of his 3-point attempts last season. He says his outside shooting has improved because last season’s foot injury is pretty much gone.
Via Lakers Nation:
“I’ve been able to be on the floor a lot more during non-game days. My foot has felt a lot better, I didn’t have much time to really rep a lot last year because I had to make sure that I could be on the floor running around or putting much pounding on the floor for my foot. I’ve had a lot of opportunity to get on the floor (this year). You guys see me before every game out on the floor working on my game, working on my craft. So that has helped out a lot too. Just try to stay consistent with my shot. Same shot every time and just work. Work, work, work, work, work.”
In Sunday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets, James scored 17 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter, and he went 9-of-10 from 3-point range on the night. During his fourth-quarter outburst, he had the New York City area crowd on its feet at Barclays Center as the Lakers put the finishing touches on a 116-104 victory.
He may not be a spring chicken, but he’s far from being a lame duck these days.