Lakers News: LeBron James, Klay Thompson Share NBA History After Double-OT Meeting
Your 23-22 Los Angeles Lakers survived a retro Splash Brothers barrage of triples on Saturday night to secure a 145-144 double-overtime victory over the 19-24 Golden State Warriors and improve beyond a .500 record.
All-Star LA forward LeBron James was particularly spectacular in guiding his club to a W. Across 47:40, the oldest player in the league scored 36 points on 11-of-24 shooting splits (2-of-4 from deep) and 6-of-6 shooting from the charity stripe, a career-most 20 (!) rebounds, and 12 assists.
Although Klay Thompson may not be at the level of his five-time All-Star self anymore, the veteran sharpshooter remains capable of big nights.
Thompson scored 24 points on 9-of-24 shooting, including 6-of-17 shooting from deep, while also chipping in four rebounds, four assists and two steals, a number that would have gone higher had he not fouled out.
After the game, James and Thompson find themselves in a unique historic moment. Both future Hall of Famers have made exactly 2,350 made career three-points -- the seventh-most such number in league, as ESPN's SportsCenter Instagram account explains.
There are plenty of caveats to this fact. For one thing, James preceded Thompson in the league by eight years, so he had a major head start over a player six years his junior, even if Thompson is famously an elite shooter and James, typically, is not. Thompson also surely would have been higher on the all-time list already had he not missed two full seasons with devastating injuries to his ACL and Achilles tendon.
Still, it's wild to see both vets, who have dueled in four NBA Finals, reach the same level in the history books, when Thompson is famously considered one of the best shooters in league history, and James is simply one of the longest players in league history.
