TORONTO — The coach knew. The teammates knew. The fans knew. The reporters knew. And the NBA’s all-time leading scorer sure as hell knew.
He had 8 points and one last shot to try to extend a streak that began nearly 19 years ago.
Over the past 1,297 games, regardless of sprained ligaments or torn tendons, LeBron James somehow, someway figured out how to score at least 10 points. Thursday in Toronto, in the final seconds, he could have bullied a smaller defender and flung a shot at the rim. He could have tried to add another game to an already untouchable record.
Instead, James wrote his own ending, wrapping up a streak that began 15 days after Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg was born, with a bullet assist to Rui Hachimura in the left corner for a game-winning 3.
RUI HACHIMURA FROM THE CORNER FOR THE WIN OFF THE LEBRON JAMES DIME!
🚨 @TISSOT BUZZER-BEATER 🚨
Everyone Gets 24 pic.twitter.com/6J38hGVRYK— NBA (@NBA) December 5, 2025
“This is the best way. If it had to end, the perfect ending for the streak is tonight,” James told The Athletic. “It’s literally who I am. That’s who I am. … It’s always been about: ‘How can I win the game? How can I make the right play and win the game?’ That streak just happened.”
Pregame, James rolled his eyes when I pointed my phone camera at the rim, waiting for him to end his warmup with some kind of dunk.
Eventually, he obliged.
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) December 4, 2025
After his postgame media session, he smiled and found the natural person to blame for 1,298 not happening.
“You f—ing jinxed me,” James joked.
Everyone seemingly conspired to make sure the record would fall Thursday. James started the game in a miserable rhythm, air-balling his first jump shot well over the rim. By the end of the first half, two other misses rocketed off the backboard without hitting the iron.
James’ hands were either glued to his hips or pulling the collar of his uniform over his face to hide his shallow breaths.
“He’s finally looking his age,” one NBA scout texted.
Six games into his 23rd season, James isn’t willing to concede that. The rhythm, he said, is because of his late start to the season. Never before had he missed an entire training camp and preseason, let alone the first 14 games of the season, because of an injury. But this season, an irritation in his sciatic nerve left the Lakers to start — and win — without him.
By halftime, James had missed all but two of his nine shots. He made no trips to the foul line. And every inch of open court he found on the offensive end required tremendous effort, with just 4 points to show for it.
He ran the floor for a layup to give him 6 points, but he shot just twice in the third. And in the fourth, with Austin Reaves resting, James got more aggressive but came up just as empty-handed. A layup where he got whacked in the head rimmed out without a trip to the line. And a 3-point shot rattled all the way down before it popped out. And though he got his eighth point on another fast break, a turnaround jumper to get him into double figures got swatted out of orbit by Scottie Barnes.
James made just one of his six fourth-quarter shots.
The final possession gave James one final chance. A double-team on Reaves got him a good opportunity against Immanuel Quickley, but his basketball DNA meant he zipped the ball to Hachimura for a game-winning 3.
A pass instead of a shot because it was the right thing to do.
“Being an all-time leading scorer was never a goal. Never,” James said. “I never had a goal of that. I wanted to lead the league in assists, multiple All-Stars and winning MVP and things like that. Starting a streak since ’07, no one says that. Beginning (in) 2007, I wasn’t like, ‘I’m about to start this double-digit streak.’ I just go out and play, and the game has given back to me, and it happened.
“And if it had to end, that’s the perfect way for me: making the right play.”
If there was a doubt about how the decision played out in real time, James hoisted his arms into the air in triumph as soon as Hachimura’s buzzer-beating corner 3 splashed through the net.
Coach JJ Redick was the first to greet James, saying the look on his face was pure joy.
Afterward, James said he didn’t have a reaction to the 10-point streak ending because the Lakers had won. But on multiple occasions during that streak, especially in his time with the Lakers, it either took a miracle or repeated blunt force to ensure he reached double figures.
Just Tuesday, James acknowledged needing to grind out every point to get to 10. It happened a season ago in Minnesota in a similar fashion. And in 2021, a high ankle sprain that would cost him more than a month had to wait for a 3-point shot to get him to 10.
“Anytime I’ve gotten my ankle rolled on, I’ve buckled and tied my shoes tighter and been able to finish the game — i.e., the time when I tore (a) ligament in my foot in Dallas. I just thought that was just a good turn and tie these up, and I ended up finishing that game and found out I had f—ing torn a ligament in my foot. At that time (in 2021), I was like, ‘Oh s—, he got me good.’ But I didn’t expect for it to be a f—ing high ankle sprain, where I was gonna be out for a while.
“So I tied my shoe up, made the 3, and the pain just kept getting worse and worse and worse.”
Those days became footnotes instead of endings. Thursday was the perfect day for the 10-point story.
But here in year 23, on a night when he couldn’t scratch out 10 points (“I won’t make that a habit,” he vowed), James said endings are always at least sort of on his mind.
“I think about it every damn day,” he said of his career. “But I could get too distracted at the notion of thinking about it, ’cause I have a job to do still. But it’s inevitable that it’s coming down the pipeline at some point. I would be lying to you if I said I don’t think about it.”
Thursday, he didn’t say more about that. One ending — and a perfect one at that — was more than enough.