LOS ANGELES_There are some nights when there is nothing an opponent can do about LeBron James.
There are some nights when his shot seems too sure, his focus too narrow and his will too intense.
Sometimes on those nights he makes history.
With 44 points in a 126-117 win over the Portland Trail Blazers, James became the fifth leading scorer in NBA history. He passed Wilt Chamberlain, who scored 31,419 points before the introduction of the three-point line.
Fittingly, James passed Chamberlain with an old-fashioned three-point play. He drove in and hit a floater with 3:55 left in the game and got fouled. The ensuing free throw was James' 39th point of the night and the 31,420th of his career.
"I think it's important to recognize milestones in our game," Lakers Coach Luke Walton said. "To do what he did and get on the top five of that list and play basketball the way he plays basketball, how unselfish he is and how great he is at getting his teammates involved is something that should be praised and talked about."
The Lakers also won their second consecutive game against the Portland Trail Blazers, after losing 16 in a row.
Damian Lillard led Portland with 31 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. Jusuf Nurkic added 21 points and 14 rebounds.
Lakers center JaVale McGee had 20 points while Lonzo Ball added 11 points and three assists with six rebounds, and helped facilitate the offense in the third quarter when James truly got going.
After a 16-point third quarter, James was just six points from Chamberlain's mark. He sat to begin the fourth. He re-entered the game with 7:03 left in the fourth. Three days after calling his own free throw shooting garbage, James made every one of the 13 free throw attempts in the second half.
With 10 rebounds and nine assists, James came close to his second triple double as a Laker. He passed it to Brandon Ingram near the end of the game, but Ingram airballed his shot, to the crowd's dismay.
When James signed with the Lakers, he talked about the excitement of signing with such a storied franchise. He might have thought about climbing this franchise's history books, or reaching milestones in this jersey. Five of the league's six all-time leading scorers wore a Laker jersey for at least part of their careers.
The history isn't unfamiliar to James.
"One of the most dominant forces we ever had in our game along with Shaq," James said about Chamberlain. "One of the greatest Lakers ever play the game. 100 point scorer. One of the greatest scorers, rebounders to ever played this game. Multi-sport/dimensional type of athlete. People had never seen something like that in that era. So just dominant in all walks of life not only just basketball but period."
But what exactly his all means to James, he saved for another time. James shrugged as he was asked about what it meant to pass Chamberlain wearing a Laker jersey.
"I don't know how I feel right now," James said. "I'm happy we were able to get another win. But any time my name is mentioned with some of the greats that have played this game, I always think back to my hometown, where I come from and how far I've come."
His hometown is Akron, Ohio, where James helped open a public school through his foundation that seeks to give underperforming, at-risk children the best education possible. The ball from this game will rest there after it's painted to commemorate Wednesday night. So will his jersey from the game.
It's the city where the journey that brought him here began.
