LeBron James 1 point away from 50,000 career points, becoming 1st NBA player to reach milestone

LeBron James is now one point away from a historical milestone that will likely never be matched in NBA history.

James is on the verge of 50,000 career points — between the regular season and playoffs — after scoring 17 on Sunday night in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 108-102 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. The Lakers’ next game is on Tuesday at home versus the New Orleans Pelicans at 10:30 p.m. ET.

Not getting the 18 points he needed to reach 50,000 was a bit of a surprise, considering the Lakers were without Austin Reaves (out with a calf injury), Rui Hachimura and Jordan Goodwin on Sunday. But Luka Dončić scored 29 to lead the team, followed by 19 from Dalton Knecht. Both players hit five 3-pointers in the game.

James shot 6-of-17 from the floor, but he did hit a big 3 after the Clippers had cut the Lakers’ lead to 93-88 at the 7:02 mark of the fourth quarter. The 3 finished a sequence in which James missed his three previous shots, but the Lakers got offensive rebounds each time to give him more chances.

That was his final basket of the game as Dončić and Knecht took control, leaving James to achieve his milestone on Tuesday.

James is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer in regular season points with 41,837 points, overtaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar two years ago for a mark that stood for 39 years. He’s also the league’s all-time leader in playoff points with 8,162 points, surpassing Michael Jordan in 2017.

Here is a chart of every field goal James has made in the regular season and playoffs, courtesy of the NBA.

Perhaps more important to James at the moment is that the Lakers have won six consecutive games and 16 of their past 20. At 38-21, they’re currently the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference behind the Oklahoma City Thunder and look like a NBA championship contender.

However, James will reach a significant career achievement along the way, joining his four NBA championships and four MVP awards, and enjoy a much-deserved appreciation for one of the greatest individual runs ever seen by a player in NBA history.