Could LeBron James Become All-Time Leading Scorer vs. Blazers?

In the upcoming season, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James will likely break one of the NBA’s improbable feats and become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.

James is just 1,325 points away from tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 38,387, meaning he needs to average just over 16 points per game over the course of the season to hit the mark in 2022-23. But given the fact that James has averaged 27 points per game during his Lakers tenure, he will likely achieve this goal before the end of the season. James only played in 56 games last season and scored 1,625 points, meaning he’ll likely reach this goal around the midway point during the year assuming he stays healthy.

Around the time he’ll be projected to reach that goal, the Lakers meet the Portland Trail Blazers twice.

James averaged over 30 points per game last season, but for the sake of this exercise, we’ll say he averages a modest 27 to match his average in four years with the Lakers. If he can maintain that average, he will only need about 49 games to reach the record.

The Lakers travel to Portland to face the Blazers in their 47th game of the season on January 22. If he breaks the record on this night, it will mean he averages a little more than 27 points per game and he likely stays healthy. Given his recent injury track record, this doesn’t appear likely. However, the Blazers travel to Los Angeles on February 13 to face the Lakers for the fourth and final time of the season just before the All-Star Break. That’s the Lakers’ 58th game of the season, which could be more realistic. It would give James a little more leeway in sitting out games and making sure that average stays in tip-top shape.

The Blazers have been in the backdrop of some key moments in Lakers history, and maybe they are due for another one in just a few short months.