Los Angeles Lakers star forward LeBron James’ incredibly lengthy streak of scoring 10-plus points in the regular season came to an end at 1,297 consecutive games on Thursday night. When the final buzzer sounded on the Lakers’ 123-120 victory over the Toronto Raptors, the 40-year-old had just eight points to his name on 4-of-17 shooting from the field.
But James’ streak of scoring double digits in points came to a close in a fitting manner. The veteran had the ball in his hands in the waning seconds of a tie game and could have tried to be the hero for the Lakers by going up for a shot, but instead, he found an open Rui Hachimura, who hit a corner 3 at the buzzer.
RUI FOR THE WIN pic.twitter.com/1Uv2ml4vWD
— Lakers Daily (@LakersDailyCom) December 5, 2025
James said after the game that his game-winning assist signified the “perfect ending” to his streak.
“This is the best way. If it had to end, the perfect ending for the streak is tonight,” James told The Athletic. “It’s literally who I am. That’s who I am. … It’s always been about: ‘How can I win the game? How can I make the right play and win the game?’ That streak just happened.”
James’ streak is now officially over, but it was in grave jeopardy of coming to an end a few days back as well. In the Lakers’ blowout loss to the Phoenix Suns to kick off the month on Dec. 1, the league’s all-time leading scorer mustered 10 points on as many shots from the floor, and he misfired on all but one of his four 3-point attempts.
While James has logged just six appearances so far in the 2025-26 campaign, it’s safe to claim that he’s in the midst of his worst scoring season as an NBA player thus far. He’s averaging a career-low 14.0 points per game on just 41.3 percent shooting from the field and 25.9 percent shooting from deep. It’s reasonable to question whether the man who’s on the other side of 40 can still serve as a go-to scorer.
But at the very least, it seems as if the Lakers might not need to rely on James to put up points as much as they have in years past. Rising star Austin Reaves is enjoying a breakout year in his fifth NBA season and averaging a career-high 28.9 points per game with the Lakers. He went off for 44 points against the Raptors on Thursday to boot, and he was a huge reason why Los Angeles ultimately came out on top.