Hoops Tonight - LeBron's Top 5 scoring moments w/ Lakers, Heat & Cavs to break Kareem's record

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Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Van Duel. Here at the Volume, we have a very special episode for you guys today, continuing our coverage of Lebron James passing Gareem Abdul Jabbard's become the NBA's all time leading score We talked a lot the night that Lebron wrote the record about his scoring development in the way that he rounded out his skill set to become the player that he needed to be to be capable of winning four championships

the way that he did. And so what I thought would be a lot of fun today is to zoom in on five specific games, five specific moments in Lebron's career that I thought demonstrated him meeting those milestones that he had to reach in his scoring development. So what today is going to be is the top five scoring moments of Lebron James's career. So without any further ado,

let's get started. I'm gonna take you guys back to two thousand seven in the Eastern Conference Finals in Game five, as the Cleveland Cavaliers went on the road in a two two tied series to play the Detroit Pistons, the same Detroit Pistons team that won a championship in two thousand four and made it to the NBA Finals again in two thousand five, and made it I can't remember exactly how many, but they made to a bunch of

Eastern Conference Finals consecutively, one of the dominant Eastern Conference teams of that era, and Lebron James was just twenty two years old, And you guys might remember this as the game where he scored twenty five straight points to secure the win, eventually sending the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals. He also scored twenty nine of their last thirty There was like a random Drew Gooden free throw mixed in there, if I remember correctly, and he finished the game with

forty eight points, nine rebounds, and seven assists. But I looked at this as the game that clearly demonstrated Lebron's foundational skill, which was that nobody could keep him from getting to the ring. Every all time great NBA player has to be well rounded. You have to build out the rest of your skill set to add that versatility

that makes you tougher to be in the playoffs. But every single one of those all time great players has a foundational skill, that one thing that they do better than everyone else, and that is their most reliable ability. Whether that's with you know, Shaquille O'Neal, just his overwhelming size and strength, or for Steph Curry the fact that he was the best jump shooter to ever play the game.

And for Lebron James, it was simply that nobody could keep him from getting to the rim at six ft nine and two seventy pounds or whatever it is he was, and with his freak athleticism, I thought he was the best athlete in the league when he was younger. No one was capable of keeping him in front. And this game was such a great example of that. He had too massive dunks to send the game to overtime in regulation, and then obviously the game winner driving past Chauncey Billup.

So let's take a look at some footage. Another opportunity on the Cavaliers by water back stuff. Here we are. The score is eighty seven, Detroit's in front. There's about thirty six seconds left, and Lebron is at the top of the key and he's isolating Jason Maxiel. Now, Jason Maxiell was the player that the Pistons tried to put on Lebron in this situation because he had a better chance of matching Lebron's size and strength. But you're gonna see the Pistons try a couple of different things to

try to keep him away from the rim. So let's take a look. So as Lebron is getting a head of steam. Noticed, first of all, he's starting back at the Pistons logo. When you give yourself more of a head of steam, it's harder for someone to contain you, as opposed to starting at the three point line when you're starting from a full stop. Now, Lebron's gonna hit Jason Maxio with a dribble combination a double move to

get to the rim. He's gonna start with the ball in his right hand, and watch how when he crosses over through his legs to the left, how he opens up his shoulders and his body to the left, and you can actually see Jason maxie hop a little bit to his right to try to contain that move, and then Lebron's gonna whip the crossover back over to the right, and maxie is completely out of position, and now he's loading up for a jackhammer dunk with his right hand.

Now the very next possession of Chauncey Billips goes down and hits the three and puts the Pistons back up by two. So the Pistons are up nine out of the James Sutton steps. Now you're gonna see Drew Gooden come up to set a screen on Jason Maxiell so he can get switched on to Tashaun Prince. Now, Tashaun Prince is one of the better perimeter defenders of this era, with a ton of length on the ball. You might remember him famously having massive defensive plays in his NBA

playoff career. But he gives a lot of weight and strength up to Lebron. So Lebron gets the switch, and now he's gonna pull the ball out to the right wing. And notice once again he dribbles all the way back out to about forty feet so he can get that head of steam. Now, as you can see, Tashaun Prince is looking around and he sees he doesn't have any help on his right side. So what he's gonna do is he's gonna try to funnel him to the left and hopes that Rashid Wallace will be able to help

him at the rim. But in the process, he kind of opens up his left shoulder with Lebron driving to his right, and Lebron is so big and strong that he's just gonna blow through that shoulder with absolutely no resistance and dunks of basketball. Again, one little note there, you can see Rashid Wallace unwilling to help off of Daniel Marshall in the corner. We're gonna talk about this when we get further down the list, but that's another

characteristic of Lebron's game. Defensive players are are terrified to help because they believe he will beat them with the past every single time. So Lebron gets these back to back dunks and the game goes overtime. Now, as we remember, from this point forward through the rest of overtime, Lebron puts on a ridiculous shot making display from the perimeter to really carry the Cavalier's offense through the two overtime periods. But we're not gonna focus on that right now because

it wasn't really reliable. This was a phase of Lebron's career when he was very streaky, and uh, we're gonna get to it later. But it took years and years more of relentless hard work from Lebron for him to build out the jump shot to the point where it was reliable. But let's pass forward to the end of this game. So it's double o t one oh seven to one oh seven. Look, Cavaliers. Notice this time they put Chauncey Billups on Lebron James and that was not

a switch that was to start to play. My guest there is Chauncey probably asked for the opportunity to try to disrupt Lebron's handle once again. Lebron is starting out at the Detroit Pistons logo out at half court so that he can get a running start. Billips is once again shading his right hand, this time trying to funnel him towards the help. But Lebron has such a head of steam when he beats Chauncey off the drible that they just can't even stop him when he knifes his

way through the lane. And once again you can see Rashid Wallace jumping out to Daniel Marshall to try to stop a pass. One of their note on this play that I thought was super interesting. When you're being guarded by smaller guards and you're a bigger player, you never want to play around with the basketball. That's not your advantage.

Your advantage is your strength and your athleticism. So I liked how Lebron was simple there and just went to the left as opposed to trying to do a dribble move like he did against some of the bigger, slower players. But Lebron wins the game with this layup, and once again I thought this was the foundational moment of Lebron's career where he figured out that absolutely nobody in the NBA could keep him from getting to the rim. Now you're gonna see as as we move on to this

next clip. We're moving on to number four, which is Lebron's game against the Spurs in two thousand thirteen. But the Spurs, they understood that that was Lebron's foundational strength, and they focused all their attention on taking just that away in the hopes that his weaknesses elsewhere in his skill set would be what burns him. But unfortunately, at

this point, Lebron had figured that out as well. So number four, we're moving up to two thousand thirteen, Game seven of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, and in this entire series, Gregg Popovich, it was almost funny and weird how much they were daring Lebron to shoot. They would go under ball screens. They have Kawhile Leonard

go under ball screens below the free throw line. They would have you know when and when he would get Tim Duncan on a switch or something along those lines, they'd have him back all the way off and just dare Lebron to shoot. And this was the series or the NBA found out that you could no longer just concede jump shots to Lebron James, and if you did,

he would burn you. We found out after the series and some of the postgame interviews and some of the postgame articles that the many talented writers to cover the NBA put out that when Lebron was adventuring around the other countries around the world for Nike and doing all

these charitable events and all these different things. That he brought his shooting trainer with him, and every single day he would work on his jump shot, even during the offseason while he was traveling and doing all of his obligations for Nike and and all of his other sponsorship deals. That Lebron broke down after that NBA Finals, just the sheer amount of relentless work that he put in to improve his jump shot. I talk all the time with

young players. There's two different kinds of shooters in the world. There are shooters and there are makers. And the difference between a shooter and a maker is not like a natural ability as much as it is the relentless work. Whenever you hear of a streaky shooter, it usually means that behind the scenes, they're not putting in the requisite work.

And you have to day after day for years and years and years, put in thousands and thousands of reps to become a competent jump shooter, and the progress just so slow. You might have to make a five hunter jump shots a day for three months just to even see the slightest bit of improvement. And that's why it does take years and years and years and so there's a specific moment that I want to point out to you guys where you can see that fulfillment happen for

Lebron James. But let's start with the shots themselves. So here we are. We're in the third quarter and the Spurs are up fifty seven to fifty six. Balano off the screen, James will try another drain, puts it in Lebron James for three putter up the game. Chris Bosh and Lebron James are setting a double pick and pop

for ray Allen. And as ray Allen is coming off the screen, notice Kawhi Leonard is sitting all the way down at the elbow to contain ray Allen as he's coming over the top of the screen, knowing that he's giving a shot to Lebron. But that fits within the Spurs scheme in this series. They were a percent willing to give Lebron wide open shots all series long, and to the Spurs credit up through Game six, it worked.

They were up in the series three games to two, almost one in Game six and Lebron did not shoot the ball well. But in this series it all came together. Ray Allen makes the kick pass back to Lebron confidently rises up and knocks down the three. We move on. I believe this is about a minute later, where at the three and a half minute mark. Now the heat are up fifty seven, catch and shoot. Playoff your instinction, trust your skill level, Leonard daring him Ray Allen and

James again, Look how fall up they're playing. He'll try it again, Ron James matching this first play the five point. Lebron has the ball now Ray Alan is setting the ball screen on the screen. Notice Kawhi Leonard duck down like he's gonna go underneath the screen, which causes Lebron to pull back for three. Kauai offers a late contest, but it's way too late and Lebron knocks it down. These are wide open, dairy to shoot shots. Fast forward again. We're at there two minutes and ten second mark of

the third quarter. Why just lead a seven? That was the Spurs in the opening minutes. Jane pulls off puts Anny, Kawhi Leonard. Look Lebron's dribbling at the logo and kawhile Leonard is sitting at the elbow. They are daring Lebron to shoot. Birdman comes to set the screen at the elbow and Kauai goes underneath the ball screen. Lebron just walks into a wide open twenty footer at the top

of the key and knocks it down again. This was all by design because the Spurs expected him to miss these shots, but at this phase of Lebron's career he had become a reliable jump shooter. Fast forward a little bit further. We're at the five minute and forty six second mark of the fourth quarter. Shot clock to five. James puts it up, knocks it down. Here we are in the middle of the fourth quarter. Miami's up to

seventy seven. Lebron's got Tim Duncan on a switch down in the right corner, and Tim Duncan is daring Lebron to shoot. Now, Lebron's gonna do what I call using a rhythm dribble to gain your rhythm going into a jump shot. A lot of times when a defender is conceding a jump shot to you, it gets in your head and so it's really hard just to rise up into a shot out of some sort of funky stand

still dribble. So rhythm dribbles are what you can use to reset your rhythm and lean back on a shot you know you've practiced a lot, So, for instance, you don't ever practice just dribbling the ball up the floor

and then elevating into a shot from a standstill. Every single time you shoot off the dribble, it's usually off of a dribble combination or a hard step to the left or a hard step to the rider, maybe a step back, and so using a rhythm dribble can set you into a situation where you can think back and go, I've made this shot hundreds of times in practice. So Lebron's gonna use a pound dribble through his legs from right to left to rise up into the shot. That

sets his rhythm. When he goes into that shot, he's thinking to himself, I have made this pound dribble through my legs jump shot hundreds and hundreds of times. I can do that. He's setting his rhythm, getting his confidence to knock that shot down, hits it over. Tim Duncan same exact thing later on. Here we are four and a half minutes in. Miami's got the lead, Lebron's got Tim Duncan on a switch six to shoot James that's good.

What he's gonna do here is just do a hard dribble to his left to elevate into a jump shot. He didn't need more separation. Tim Duncan was already conceding the shot, but that hard dribble just helped set Lebron's rhythm so that he felt confident rising into that shot. He knocks it down and then to end the game less than a minute left in the fourth quarter, Miami up. James pull us up, looks at end point lye thirty five for Lebron. James time out, say that Lebron's got

Kawhi Leonard. We're gonna have Mario Chalmers come set the screen and Tony Parker is gonna do a hedge and recover. So he's gonna hop out on Lebron just to cause him to hesitate a little bit as he's coming off of that screen, and then he's gonna recover back out to Mario Chalmers. But Kawhi Leonard once again watches Lebron is coming off of the Tony Parker hedge. Look at this long step Kawhi Leonard takes back to the paint. It's not a long step to contest Lebron's jump shot.

It's a long step back to the paint. There once again overplaying the paint and conceding a jump shot to Lebron. He rises, is up and knocks down the twenty foot or that effectively amounts to be the dagger to win Lebron's second NBA Championship. And one of my favorite moments

in this video. If you watch, the camera stays live and and looks uh follows Lebron to the bench, and as he's going to the bench after he high fives a couple of coaches, you can see him just do a hard fist pump into his hand and he yells out something that sounds like yes or yeah. And what I love about that is, to me, that's the fulfillment

of hard work, a leading to results. Lebron as a as a wealthy man, you know, traveling in his summers, it would be so easy for him to relax, It would be so easy for him to take it easy. But he paid his dues, you know, blood, sweat and tears for years and years and years to round out that jump shot into something that he could count on. And then suddenly, in a big moment when he absolutely needed it. It came through for him, and you got

to see that fulfillment as an athlete. Those are just the moments that I appreciate the most, just seeing that hard work payoff and lead to something and it almost comes out as a nearly emotional type of response. Number four. This was Lebron finally discovering that teams could not ever concede jump shots to him and if they did that, he would make them pay. All right. Number three, We're

gonna fast forward down to two thousand seventeen. This was Game three of the Eastern Conference first round series between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Indiana Pacers. The Calves had gone up two games to none and they were going on the road to Indiana. That Game three on the road for a for a team down to oh is always one of the toughest games in the world to win. I always call it the buzz saw game because you're playing in front of your home crowd. Usually that team

is the underdog. They feed off of that crowd energy to an absurd extent. And once again in this game, it played out like so many other game threes that I've seen an NBA history play out. The home team dominates throughout, but in the second half, Tyler actually benches both of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love because they weren't playing l and he closes the game with Lebron James and role players. This game, to me, is the best example of how Lebron's passing ability sets up his scoring opportunities.

Throughout the NBA, you see scores deal with multiple defenders all over the floor, and oftentimes, for a defensive coach or for a defensive strategy, it makes the most sense to try to get the ball out of that guy's hands because chances are he's not going to consistently make the right play because he's looking to score. That's the way his his basketball brain works. But with Lebron James

in particular, it's the exact opposite effect. Lebron is constantly looking to make the right read, like we were talking about in the Detroit Pistons game when Rashid Wallace kept refusing to leave Danielle Marshall to offer help on Lebron at the rint. Lebron is one of the most efficient scorers in NBA history, and I think a huge part of that is he's constantly on an Island attacking just his defender. But that's not just by design, that's not

bad defense. It's simply because coaches are terrified to send help to Lebron because they know he will burn them every single time. And that's how this game started. Here's the play early in the fourth quarter. Paces are up four after his monster second quarter, and I'm sure he's glad to see one go through. Kevin. Yeah, up lection, tough, tough shot were getting along to their Lebron had been torching the Pacers with the past throughout this entire game.

He actually finished the game with twelve assists. So there's one play in particular from this game that I think is the perfect encapsulation of this concept that I'm talking about. So in the middle of the fourth quarter, there's about six and a half minutes left and the game is tied. Paul George a chance at triple doubles together here till start way by shopperd. Here's Lebron James. He's got Coever on the way. He'll taking him out on the lead.

Paul George is isolating himn chumppered at the free throw line, and Hemn Schumpered chumps him or strips him as he's rising up for a jump shot. Rest in piece to Fred McCloud, the play by play announcer for the Calves who coined that term. But it sparks a two on one fast rake with Lebron James with the basketball, Kyle Korver running the right wing, and monte Ella is standing

between Lebron and the rim. Lebron all he does is right at the top of the key, hesitates with the hy dribble and peaks over at Kyle Korver, and when he does watch Montella is sprint out to Kyle Korver. Not not Oh, I'm scared of Lebron, let me get out of the way. Not not I I just don't. I'm not interested in taking a charge. Just literally, I think Lebron is gonna make this past to Kyle Korver, So he sprints out to Kyle Korver and concedes a wide open dunk to Lebron James going down the lane.

Once again the fear of Lebron James and his willingness to make the right play at the expense of conceding a wide open dunk. Lebron finished the game with fort and twelve and closed out the Indiana Pacers on their home floor to go up three oh in the series without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, the ultimate offensive engine and NBA his three. All right, let's pass forward one year to two eight. Team. We're gonna look at two games for this one. But there's one specific play that

I think kind of sets everything up. And then obviously, you guys remember what happens in Game two of this series. But we're going to two thousand eighteen in the Eastern Conference second round series between the Toronto Raptors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers had just come out of a seven game slug fest against the Indiana Pacers, and so

they were exhausted and worn out. Everyone was generally low on the calves at this point in The Toronto Raptors were a heavy favorite to win this series, but they go into Game one and Lebron is having a tough shooting night, finished the game twelve for thirty from the field, only had twenty six points, but down the stretch he made every big play to send the game to overtime, and I believe j R. Smith ended up making most of the big shots in ot as the Calves ended

up stealing Game one. But the biggest play of the game, it's one oh five to one oh three. Toronto has the leads the tend to shoot, yes, looks knocks it down. Lebron doesn't call for a ball screen. Lebron doesn't run any sort of action. And again, this is a big thing that I talked about. If you call ball screens, you're bringing a second defender up into the play. Lebron

wanted nothing to do with that. He saw o g and and Obi and said, this is the guy that I'm attacking, backs him down to the right block and knocks down a fade away over his right shoulder. I look at this as the game where Lebron understood that he was confident enough in his skill set to go to the post in late game situations to create shots. One of the reasons why I'm such a big believer hurting your back to the basket is it's the easiest way to protect the basketball. It allows you to use

your size and strength to pin the defender behind you. Now, good post defenders will slide their feet well and keep you in front and make you shoot over the top. But if you are taller and you are capable of knocking down shots over the top. Those post up fade

away suddenly become the most unguardable shot in basketball. And Lebron James, in a game where they needed one basket to send it to ot, went to his unguardable shot, a fade away over his right shoulder on the right block, and he knocked it down and sent the game to ot, where the Cavs inevitably one. Then we fast forward to Game two, and as you guys remember this is the

Lebronto game, time and time again. Down the stretch of the third quarter and in the fourth quarter, Lebron just hit a obnoxious variety of fade aways over Searchebaca, over Kyle Lowry, over Pascal Siakum, over O g And and Noby. He was doing everything from every spot on the floor. There were side step jump shots, step back threes, turnarounds over his right shoulder, turnarounds over his left shoulder. There was even like a little one legged fade away at

the free throw line, softly off the rim. It was almost like what clicked for him at the end of Game one became suddenly something he was so confident in that he just leaned on at time and time again down the floor. The most absurd thing about this particular game was that was the moment where you realized Lebron

had reached a level of greatness and a level of confidence. Then, in a monumental, the important playoff game, a second round playoff game against the team that was favored to beat you, Lebron was just trying stuff, just challenging himself to make tougher and tougher shots. Lebron went to that tough shot in game one because he had to, this is his

best chance to tie the game. He did it in game two because he wanted to demoralize and snatch the heart of the Toronto Raptors, and that's exactly what he did and one of the most impressive playoff feats of Lebron's career. He swept the Toronto Raptors as a heavy underdog without Kyrie Irving, without a legitimate costar on the team,

and just a group of role players. But that was another monumental step that Lebron had to reach in his scoring development, trusting his back to the basket game to create shots in big moments, using his size alright number one. We're gonna fast forward to the year that Lebron won his most recent NBA Championship. One round after the Los Angeles Clippers collapsed time and time again against this Denver Nuggets team that was so good in the second halves

of games. As they picked you apart with the Jamal Murray Nickela yokits, drible handoffs and reverse pick and rolls and normal pick and rolls and all of that stuff. Somebody had to be the guy who could finally stop the Denver Nuggets from coming back, and it was Lebron James with an assortment of pull up jump shots to execute the Denver Nuggets when Kawhi Leonard and Paul George could not. I've talked a lot about how pull up

jump shooting is something that's somewhat unreliable. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are professional pull up jump shooters. That's what they do better than everyone else in the world. But that is their foundational skill, and it failed them on that stage. What was so interesting about this moment to me for Lebron was that this is not even his foundational skill. As we talked about earlier, his foundational skill was his ability to get to the rim, or his

ability to impact the game defensively with his athleticism. But what sets Lebron apart from the rest is he can do that shot making stuff just as well or almost as well as the guys who do it professionally as their foundational skill. Down the stretch of this game against Denver, Lebron made a ridiculous variety of complex pull up jump shots off of different footwork, off of different dribble combinations to put away the Denver Nuggets. And once again, this

is not his foundational skill. I would argue in his career, it's been his weakest of his core skills. But even his weakest of his core skills is something that he does better than the vast majority of players in the NBA. So let's start to hear about the seven minute mark of the fourth quarter again, the Lakers are up three one in the series. If they win this game, they

go to the NBA Finals. The Nuggets were on a big run in the second half of this game, just like they had been doing against every team that came before mill stap There's a lot of discussion about that call. When Davis came down on his heel, James gets into the pain, Grant right there with him all and James Lebron has Jeremy Grant off of a pick and roll

and he's working to his left. He gets cut off excellent defense from Jeremy Grant as he funnels him away from the basket, but Lebron just elevates from the block, bading several feet towards the baseline and knocks down the jump shot. That is an incredibly difficult shot that salvages a possession that was defended extremely well by the Denver Nuggets. Here we go to the four minute mark, Lakers are up one. Now, James will shoot it up, but Chopper he's got it. Lebron James for the stair out of

that Denver bench. Lebron's gonna run a pick and roll with Dwight Howard and Nikola Yokich is actually going to switch the pick and roll because Jeremy Grant gets caught on the screen. Dwight Howard has always been a very good screener, but on the play noticed Nikla Yoki just too far back. He takes a retreat step back to the semi circle and Lebron finds himself by himself at about one feet and he knocks down that pull up

jump shot. I've always talked about in pick and roll, in order to beat different pick and roll coverages, you need to be able to punish a defender for going under a screen or a big man for sitting too far back by being able to rise up and knockdown pull up jump shots. Lebron did it there to put the Lakers is up by nine. Fast forward to the three minute mark. The Lakers are up one oh eight, one oh one to switch. Now Murray on Lebron James a hobbled Murray trying to stay with him as best

to can Lebron. James hits one a. Lebron calls Danny Green to come set the screen, this time getting Jamal Murray on a switch. What I thought was so impressive about this play is when you're going against shorter defenders once again, like we talked about earlier, this is the time to turn your back to the basket. Notice Lebron is setting up the spin here. He's deliberately moving further to the right because he wants to create space so that he can elevate into the middle of the lane

without Jeremy Grant becoming a problem. So notice he's gonna work down towards the right block to set up his spin move hard dribble. He's setting up his footwork for the spin. Does the pound dribble into a spin? Now, Jeremy Grant is not any position where he could help. If you ran this exact same move but about ten feet further to the left where he originally had jam All on the switch, it would be much easier for Jeremy Grant to run in there and dig or to

help and then get back to Danny Green. Lebron sets up that turnaround it away over his right shoulder, which has been one of the bread and butter shots of his career, and knocks it down to put the Lakers up nine again very next possession. The first year of Lebron James, and they've missed six consecutive years with a drought James again, Oh, it's another one that Lebron James. Putting together a closing corner against the Nuggets. Lakers get

a swap. It's gonna be another Dwight Howard pick and roll. This time. Jeremy Grant does a nice job quickly ducking under the pick and getting back onto Lebron, and Lebron is gonna go to Kevin Durant's bread and butter move, what we call the heavy pull up jump shot. He's gonna have the ball in his left hand and he's gonna squat down low. When he gets low to the ground, it's like you're setting up a dribble move. Most players, when they sit down low in the hesitation, they're looking

to explode to their left. As a result, it gets Jeremy Grant to also squat down to prepare to make a recovery step to his right, and that opens up just enough space for Lebron to elevate into a pull up jump shot that he knocks down. That's another element of variety and Lebron's shot making. And here we go to the Dagger Lakers up one, one oh three his hundred and sixteenth, which is number one. He'll take a three Lebron James Well another pick and roll with Dwight Howard.

This time Nicola Yokich is going to hedge out to try to stop Lebron from turning that corner. When he does, Jeremy Grant has to take a short step back to watch out for that lob and you can see Lebron pick up the basketball like he's going to throw that lob to Dwight Howard. Yoki sprints back to Dwight Howard, and in that split second, while Jeremy Grant is too far low, Lebron rises up and knocks down the shot to send the Lakers to the NBA Finals. So Lebron

always had those foundational skills. He had that ability to get to the rim that he discovered in two thousand and seven, and then from his time in high school, he was always a basketball player that had a natural feel for finding his teammates. It's almost like an order of operations in his head. He's always looking to make

the right play. But as you saw over the years, because of limitations in the supporting cast and because of his limitations as a jump shooter, teams found ways to beat Lebron by packing the paint and letting him make the right play and have guys miss shots and have him miss jump shots on their way to beating Lebron

James teams. But over the years he rounded out that skill set with everything you need from that specific position, pull up jump shooting off the dribble, as you're operating with a live dribble from the perimeter, turning your back to the basket, and your ability to knock down shots

over both shoulders. We didn't go over it in this video, but another huge element of Lebron's game has been that modern perimeter shack, that ability to to use his strength and size to just bully people around the rim with a live dribble. As a result, the Lebron has become one of the most well rounded basketball players that we've ever seen in this league. And he never gets included with the scores, like we talked about that night, because of the fact that he gets to the room so frequently.

We talked about it this year, like Lebron everage seven makes in the restricted area per game. Steph Kauai and Kevin Durant combine to make six shots in the restricted area per game. So you watch them just make all of these complicated shots all the time, and so that

causes people to gravitate towards them as scores. But the truth of the matter is when you combine Lebron James interior presence as a bullyball score around the rim and all those things that he rounded out with his skill set from the perimeter, with the ability to knock down shots turning over both shoulders out of the post, with the ability to knock down shots out of a different dribble combinations and out of different footwork from the perimeter,

it suddenly made him completely unguardable. And when you pair that with his relentless willingness to make the right play and to hit his teammates and spots where they feel comfortable, he became what I believe to be the best offensive engine to ever play in the M. Yet the volume