Los Angeles Lakers: Top 10 moments of the 2018-19 NBA season

8. James drops 51 in a familiar setting

Prior to their Nov. 18 matchup with the Miami Heat down in South Beach, the LeBron era in Los Angeles wasn’t off to a sparkling start. The Lakers had gone 8-7, including some disheartening losses in the final minutes.

More importantly, L.A.’s sluggish start and inability to close out games began to raise questions regarding the elite status of James. After eight consecutive runs to the NBA Finals, was this the year he’d finally relinquish his place atop the league’s hierarchy? After the accumulation of so many minutes, was he indeed capable of leading this franchise back to postseason relevance?

In the same building where he won his first two championships, LeBron put any doubt of his abilities to bed, dropping what would be a season-high 51 points in a convincing 113-97 victory over the Heat.

When the jumper is falling, James is a tough player to guard. He shot 19-of-31 overall, including 6-of-8 from beyond the arc. It was simply one of those nights where everything was clicking, and the only thing Miami could do was take the ball out of his hands or sit back and enjoy the show.

LeBron will eventually slow down. There will come a day where he is no longer the best player in the world (probably). Such an early point in the 2018-19 season wasn’t the time to make that argument, and it’s clear that with what would be his best scoring performance of the season, he made sure to reinforce this sentiment quite emphatically.