LeBron James defies time, propels Lakers to Conference Finals

EL SEGUNDO,Calif. (AP) — As his NBA career approaches the dawn of its thirddecade, LeBron James plays almost exclusively alongside teammateswho grew up watching him dominate their game.

He has playedagainst the sons of his basketball contemporaries, and he hasplayed against one of his own 18-year-old son’s former high schoolteammates. That son, Bronny, is headed to college at USC in thefall, an achievement that sparks a father’s proud smile whenever hementions it.

Signs oftime’s passage are all around the 38-year-old James,yetthenew top scorer in NBA historyis defying all conventionalwisdom about growing older in his mercilessly athletic sport.

When he’sfully healthy — which is admittedly true less often than he wouldlike — the third-oldest active player in the league still sprints,dunks,throws no-lookpassesand competes with the intensity that has kept himat the top for 20 punishing NBA seasons.

“Bron is justdifferent,” Lakers big man Anthony Davis said. “He keeps showingus, showing you. He’s not done yet, either.”

Two daysbefore his Los Angeles Lakerseliminatedthe vaunted Golden State Warriorstoreachthe Western Conference finalslast week, James was namedto the All-NBA third team. James made one of the three teams forthe jaw-dropping 19th time even though he played in only 56 gamesthis season.

“I don’t takethose moments for granted,” James said. “I don’t take anything thatI’ve been able to accomplish for granted, and I’m alwaysappreciative. To be a part of that class of 15 guys is still prettycool, even at my age and where I’m at right now, Year 20. Justdon’t take it for granted.

“Obviously,I’ve got bigger fish to fry. But those small moments, those smallwins right there, is all part of the journey, all part of thelegacy.”

The big fishis his fifth NBA championship, which is somehow just eight winsaway from being caught at the close of a tumultuous Lakers season.Even getting this close to James’ 11th career NBA Finals appearanceis incredible, considering these Lakers started the season 2-10 andsat at 26-32 in mid-February, shortly after James broke KareemAbdul-Jabbar’s league scoring record.

But after a27-12 run through the past two months highlighted by knocking offsecond-seeded Memphis and the defending NBA champions, James’Lakers open the conference finals at top-seeded Denver on Tuesdaynight. The Lakers haven’t lost back-to-back games since March 17,and they’ve lost just once at home since March 26.

To use thephrase frequently deployed by first-year Lakers coach Darvin Ham,James’ fingerprints are all over the Lakers’ success — particularlyin their biggest games.

In the firstround, James hadthefirst 20-point, 20-rebound playoff gameof his careerduring the Lakers’ Game 4 victory over Memphis — and he also hitthe dramatic tying shot in the final second of regulation. In thesecond round, James racked up 30 points, nine rebounds and nineassists in the clinching Game 6 victory over defending championGolden State, conjuring his first 30-point playoff outing since the2020 season.

Ham was stilla player in James’ first two NBA seasons. He calls LeBron’s Year 20performance, particularly after a late-season injury, “unreal.”

“I’ve beenaround some elite, top-tier, top-5 talent in the NBA as a playerand a coach,” Ham said. “Kobe was nothing short of amazing. Giannis(Antetokounmpo). (But) LeBron, I’ve never seen anything like it.... Top five, dead or alive, ever to play in the NBA.”

Indeed, nobasketball player has ever stood on the sport’s biggest stages asoften and as long as James, and he has repeatedly thrived under thespotlight of 16 NBA postseasons and three Olympics. The Lakers’elimination of the Warriors was James’ 41st career playoff seriesvictory, passing Derek Fisher for the most series wins by oneplayer in NBA history.

He has playedin a league-record 278 postseason games, and his 7,912 careerplayoff points are nearly 2,000 more than Michael Jordan (5,987)atop the NBA’s career playoff scoring list. He’s even thefourth-leading rebounder in NBA playoff history with 2,511 boards —that’s a whopping 1,120 more than the next-highest active player,Draymond Green.

The Lakers’achievements are even more impressive because James missed a fullmonth down the regular-season stretch due to a right foot injurythat still limits his explosiveness. Los Angeles went 8-5 withouthim and then went 6-2 after he returned in late March.

One play-invictory and two commanding playoff series wins later, theseventh-seeded Lakers are four wins away from another Finals forthe four-time championship series MVP.

“That’s beenus since we made acquisitions with our new guys,” James said.“We’ve been able to be very resilient in games. Like I said, we’vebeen playing lot of basketball for about 2 1/2 months now, justtrying to punch our clock and to be able to play the right way inthe postseason.”

Indeed, Jamesand Davis realize they wouldn’t be in this position without animpressive midseason reconfiguration of the roster around them.D’Angelo Russell was the Lakers’ centerpiece addition at the tradedeadline, and the well-traveled guard soon learned something hedidn’t know about the hard work behind James’ transcendence.

“Bron’s nichehas always been preparedness,” Russell said. “A lot of guys’ nichesis shooting the ball, working hard, outworking guys. LeBron is afilm junkie, a basketball junkie, a leadership junkie. To be ableto watch it all from the front row, it’s almost like a cheatcode.”