For only the third time in his illustrious NBA career, LeBron James was held scoreless in the first half of a basketball game. The Los Angeles Lakers star missed all five of his attempts from the field and struggled overall, with the Detroit Pistons outscoring his team by 14 points during his 18 minutes of playing time.
Considering how high a scorer James is (he is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, after all), seeing him go scoreless can be a disturbing sight. But the Lakers star has saw his role changing Largely relative to his heyday, as Luka Doncic is now the undisputed number one scoring option for the purple and gold.
“This is the role I’m playing for the ball club. To win ball games, this is the role I’m playing. And that’s the way the game was going,” James told reporters after the Lakers’ 113–110 loss to the Pistons, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
“This is the role I’m playing for the ball club. To win ball games, this is the role I’m playing. And that’s the way the game was going” – LeBron James on going scoreless in the first half for only the third time in his career and the first time since 2010 pic.twitter.com/W5HK2ThdPH
-Dave McMenamin (@mcten) 24 March 2026
James is actually playing more of a supporting role, which suits him better than ever, considering he’s already 41 years old. And it’s safe to say that this change is working for the Lakers, as they entered the night having won nine consecutive games. What this simply means is that James is fully on board with what the team is doing, although he needs to be better than he was on Monday to recover from this situation.
The Lakers have hit their stride
The Lakers have now managed to get the most out of Doncic after he faced some difficulties sharing ballhandling and playmaking duties to start his life in LA after the blowout trade last year.
Doncic being so impressive (he shot 32-6-7 in the loss to the Pistons) bodes well for their chances of making some noise in the playoffs, but James getting up and running will be key to their title hopes.
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