Remembering the last time LeBron scored fewer than 10 points in the regular season … 18 years ago

Editor’s note: This file was originally published on January 25, 2023. On December 4, 2025, at Toronto, James’ double-digit scoring streak ended after 1,297 games. This series started more than 18 years ago.

Lebron James Is is famous for Amazing ability to remember specific moments At any time during his pro basketball career, whether it happened a few minutes ago or years ago.

But when asked earlier this week about the milestone he reached Thursday — 16 years and 1,125 regular season games without scoring fewer than 10 points — James remained stumped.

“In fact?” he told ESPN. “I do not remember it.”

It turns out that James is not alone.

The game no one remembers? It was January 5, 2007 cleveland cavaliers, 95-86 road victory Above milwaukee bucks During James’ fourth season in the NBA.

His line: nine assists, five rebounds, shooting 3 of 13 from the field in 43 minutes.

And eight points.

“When I went to look at the box score I said, ‘Okay, maybe I Had a good game,” Donyell Marshall, now an assistant with the G League’s Greensboro Swarm and a forward on the 2006-07 Cavaliers team, told ESPN. “Then I looked at the box score and I was like, ‘Okay, I didn’t do anything either.'”

“If you had asked me, ‘Do you remember 30-plus points and LeBron being in single digits?’ I expected to have some kind of memory of it,” said Drew Gooden, a former Cavaliers forward now working as an analyst. washington wizards broadcast, told ESPN with a laugh.

There was one person, however, who had a crystal-clear memory of what happened that night: then-Bucks coach Terry Stotts.

“Honestly, I remember that game well — and not because LeBron didn’t score a 10,” Stotts told ESPN.

Cleveland’s final play of that victory – a dunk by Michael Redd with 14.8 seconds remaining – would become the beginning of the end of Stotts’ tenure in Milwaukee.

“Michael had a dunk in the last seconds of the game,” Stotts said. “A meaningless dunk. We were in ninth place.

,[But] He goes up to dunk the ball and hurts his knee a bit and misses the next 20 games. …We went 3-17.”

And, a little more than two months later – when Milwaukee entered the Cavaliers game with a .500 record, and wins in seven of their last nine games – Stotts was fired. He later remained successful as a coach for nine years portland trail blazers,

But while the game proved to be of vital consequence for the Bucks, for Cleveland it was just another night on the way to a highly successful season that ended with a loss in the NBA Finals. San Antonio Spurs,

So while James’ former teammates don’t remember much about a random January game from 16 years ago, the memories of playing with him remain strong.

“I’m amazed at how much he continues to grow and figure things out with the weight of the world on his shoulders,” Gooden said.

“He’s a real-life superhero who’s always available.”

to marshal, who As part of his career he spent parts of three seasons playing with James, in which he played for eight different teams, his lasting memory of James was of a man who was both dedicated to improving and learning the history of the game from a very young age.

“I played with a lot of superstars, but never anyone who studied the game at that age,” Marshall said. “As soon as the game was over, he wanted [to watch] film.

“To me, a lot of guys today aren’t necessarily students of the game. A lot of guys didn’t know the players that played before them that paved the way for them. However, he’s a guy who knows Oscar Robertson’s stats. He knows Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar’s] Statistics. he knows Wilt ChamberlainStatistics of.”

Meanwhile, Gooden said what stood out to him was that James was under a basketball microscope at every point throughout his life, going back to his high school days at St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron, Ohio has always met the moments set before her.

“He’s just always figuring it out,” Gooden said. “Just being able to produce under pressure. I’ve known him since he was 15, so it’s a different perspective knowing him for 26 years. …

“He had this Nike campaign, about how we were witnesses to his greatness. Well, we’ve all been witnesses. It’s just that. It’s that, and more.”

To put James’ streak into perspective: Marshall played 957 games over 15 NBA seasons. Gooden, meanwhile, played 790 games over 14 years in the league – far more than the average NBA player’s career, and far longer.

Marshall said, “It’s actually more surprising that he ever scored less than 10 points, rather than saying he hasn’t done that in 16 years.” “Early in your career, your rookie year, you’re going to have some games where you don’t score more than 10. But given the greatness he’s displayed and everything he’s done, I would say I’m more surprised about this streak than I am surprised that he had a game of less than 10 points.”

On the other hand, former Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson was a rookie that season. When Gibson was asked about playing with James, he immediately recalled his pre-draft workout before the 2006 draft, when Cleveland took him with the 42nd overall pick.

“I had a terrible workout in Houston and then the Cavs was my second workout,” Gibson, now an assistant coach with the G League’s Cleveland Charge, told ESPN. “And [LeBron] Was there and I performed amazingly.

“After the workout, he came up to me and it gave me all the confidence in the world. Being like that he is Lebron Jamesyou are [just] Hoping for an opportunity on the roster – not to mention letting him know that he would love to be on their roster if I were still available.

“He instilled a lot of confidence in me and that’s what I learned about him from the day I arrived at the Cavs. He was, to me, the best player in the world, and he was still the first one in the gym, the last one to leave.”

“At first I was like, ‘This is one of those records that’s kind of made up,’ but then I realized it’s not. It’s like a real record.”

LeBron James, on his streak of 1,125 regular season games with at least 10 points

For his part, James said he didn’t pay much attention to the regular season game streak, saying it was only something he noted when it came up on his social media timeline or was mentioned in the media.

And, he said, when he looks at the box score at halftime, his point total isn’t something he focuses on.

“I look at it,” James said, “but the things I look at the most are our team’s turnovers, the other team’s points off turnovers, fast break points by our opponents, my individual turnovers.

“That’s all. I don’t pay too much attention to total scores.”

nearest james He came to break the streak on March 20, 2021, when he collapsed on the court in pain and frustration after spraining his ankle after landing. atlanta hawks Next Solomon Hill.

For some time it seemed that he would not be able to continue playing. But he managed to hang on long enough to hit a 3-pointer to reach 10 points before calling a timeout and leaving the game.

This would be the last game James would play for over a month, although James said at the time he was not aware of the impact of his made 3-pointer.

“Not until after the game,” James said.

Another notable moment during the streak came during the 2017–18 regular season finale. new York KnicksWhere James, who was aiming to play in all 82 games, immediately left the contest Scored exactly 10 points in 11 minutes,

While James’ double-digit point streaks have grown larger over time – especially after surpassing Michael Jordan Previous record of 866 Consecutive regular season games in a win over the Cavaliers on March 30, 2018 New Orleans Pelicans – It wasn’t something he ever thought about trying to achieve.

“I was like, ‘Oh, that’s great,'” James said, referring to Jordan’s passing. “At first I was like, ‘This is one of those records that’s kind of made up,’ but then I realized it’s not. It’s like a real record. But, I don’t know. I just go out and play.

“Same thing with the all-time scoring record when I get it. I’ve never [aimed for it] …It’s great. I mean, I can’t sit here and say, ‘Oh, okay, that doesn’t make any sense.’ Because it happens. But I was not ready to do that. I didn’t.”

Whether James set out to accomplish it or not, 16 years later he’s still doing so, getting closer to breaking Abdul-Jabbar’s once-insurmountable mark as the league’s all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points.

However, for Gooden, it gives him a chance to prove to his 10-year-old son, Drew Gooden IV, that his dad really knows a thing or two about playing with one of the great players.

“I’ll show my son this box score,” Gooden said with a laugh, adding that his son asks about James “all the time.”

“He’ll say to me, ‘Have you talked to LeBron? Do you know it’s his birthday?'” Gooden continued. “He’s a huge LeBron fan, and he’s getting to the age now where he knows it’s the truth, because the data is there to support it.

“I’ve been a part of some historic nights with him. But I never thought I’d have such a historic night where he scored single points and I scored 31 points.”