For nearly two decades, the most consistent inevitability in the NBA was LeBron James scoring at least 10 points. On Thursday night, with the game on the line and a historic streak hanging in the balance, James chose victory over vanity.
The Los Angeles Lakers star saw his NBA-record streak of consecutive regular-season games with double-digit points end at 1,297 in a 123-120 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
With the score tied at 120 and seconds remaining, James—sitting on eight points—had the ball in his hands and a chance to extend his record. Instead of forcing a shot against a collapsing Raptors defense, he whipped a pass to Rui Hachimura in the corner. Hachimura drilled the buzzer-beating 3-pointer to win the game, leaving James with a single-digit scoring total for the first time since Jan. 5, 2007.
“Just playing the game the right way. You always make the right play,” James said after the game. “That’s just been my M.O. That’s how I was taught the game. I’ve done that my whole career”.
The Play
The sequence perfectly encapsulated the “pass-first” mentality James has maintained throughout his 23-year career. Lakers guard Austin Reaves, who carried the offense with a 44-point performance in the absence of Luka Dončić, initiated the play before passing to James.
As Raptors defender Scottie Barnes applied pressure and Immanuel Quickley rotated over, James recognized the 4-on-3 advantage. Rather than attempting a contested shot to reach the 10-point threshold, he trusted Hachimura.
LEBRON SACRIFICED HIS 10-PT STREAK FOR THE GAME WINNER 🤯😱
O.M.G. pic.twitter.com/g3qpmCVjW9
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 5, 2025
“I was just trying to put the ball on time, on target in Rui’s socket, in his shot pocket, and he knocked it down,” James said.
When asked if he had any regrets about the streak ending, James offered a succinct reply: “None. We won”.
Breaking Down the History
To understand the magnitude of this streak is to look back at a different era of basketball. The last time James scored fewer than 10 points in a regular-season game prior to Thursday, the first iPhone had not yet been released, and George W. Bush was in the White House.
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The Record: James’ 1,297-game run is by far the longest in NBA history. He shattered the previous record held by Michael Jordan, who scored in double figures in 866 consecutive games from 1986 to 2001.
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The Gap: The difference between James and Jordan (431 games) is roughly equivalent to five full NBA seasons.
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The Peers: The next closest marks belong to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (787 games) and Karl Malone (575 games), highlighting James’ unprecedented longevity and consistency.
The streak survived ankle sprains, illnesses, minutes restrictions, and blowout losses for nearly 19 years. It ended only because, at age 41, James decided the right basketball play was more important than a line in the record book.
“The basketball gods, if you do it the right way, they tend to reward you,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said.
On a night where he scored only eight points on 4-of-17 shooting, James still left the court a winner, proving once again that his impact goes beyond the box score.
