Each week during the 2022-23 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether the trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.
With eight minutes left in their game against the Atlanta Hawks on LeBron James' 38th birthday, the Los Angeles Lakers appeared poised to waste another remarkable performance by the aging legend. James had given them an absurdly efficient 34 points, nine rebounds and eight assists over 32 minutes, and yet the Hawks had drawn even. He was trotting back on defense and milling about the perimeter on offense, seemingly, like the rest of us, resigned to the inevitability that another brilliant effort would result in defeat.