In late December, the Los Angeles Lakers were in quite a bit of trouble.
After starting the season 2-10, they had gone on a spurt from mid-November to early December, only to lose superstar big man Anthony Davis to injury shortly. They had lost four of their last five games heading into a Dec. 30 contest at the Atlanta Hawks, and they badly needed to string wins.
Dec. 30 happened to be LeBron James’ 38th birthday, but he managed to step into the Wayback Machine and deliver a performance that made it seem as if he had just turned 28 years of age.
He punished a mediocre Hawks squad by going into volcano mode and posting 47 points on 18-of-27 shooting. Forty-five of those points came after the first quarter, as he helped his team rally from a 15-point deficit to take control.
James added 10 rebounds and nine assists as L.A. earned a 130-121 victory to stop its bleeding.
The victory was the first of five in a row for the Lakers. That streak went a long way in helping them tread water until they performed CPR on themselves with two midseason trades that turned everything around.