LeBron James is now the oldest player to lead a playoff series in scoring
· Yahoo Sports
In the Los Angeles Lakers' first-round series win over the Houston Rockets, LeBron James yet again made NBA history by becoming the oldest player ever to lead a playoff series in scoring. Of course, the caveat there is that Houston star Kevin Durant missed most of the series after suiting up in Game 1, in which he scored 23 points on 58.3 percent shooting, but even so, what James is doing at his age, 41 years and over 100 days old, is unprecedented.
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On top of that, James' star teammate, Luka Doncic, who led the entire NBA in scoring at 33.5 points per game this season, missed the entire series. Had he played, there's little doubt he would have led both teams in points. And Doncic's backcourt partner, Austin Reaves, who had a higher regular-season scoring average than James in 2025-26 (23.3 points per game vs. 20.9 points per game) didn't return until Game 5. He would have been another candidate to lead both teams in scoring had he been at full health.
Regardless, in the series against the Rockets, James put up 23.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game on 43.2 percent shooting from the floor over six games. His most impressive outing came in Game 3, a vital road win that helped Los Angeles take a commanding 3-0 series lead, in which James went off for 29 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and three steals as the Lakers won the game in overtime.
James' 139 total points in the series led both teams; the closest player to James in scoring in the series was Houston's Alperen Sengun, who scored 122 total points.
This is another longevity record that James has taken from a fellow Laker legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The Lakers legend owned the record since 1985-86 when, in the second round of the playoffs, he scored 176 total points over six games (29.3 points per game). The Lakers defeated the Dallas Mavericks in that series to advance to the Western Conference Finals, with Abdul-Jabbar at 39 years and 22 days old in the final game of the matchup.
Third on this list is Karl Malone, who at 37 years and 284 days old led the 2001 Jazz-Mavericks first-round series in scoring across its five games. Dallas wound up winning the series despite Malone's 138 points (27.6 per game).
This is another marker of James' greatness and longevity. Leading a playoff series in overall scoring for both teams is no easy feat, and pulling it off at 41 was unheard of until The Chosen One did it over the past couple of weeks.
This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: LeBron James sets new NBA playoff scoring record