LeBron James scored 50+ points for the first time in his NBA career on this day in history, March 20, 2005. He was 20 years and 80 days old at the time, and became the youngest player in NBA history to eclipse the 50-point plateau. On that night, LeBron was in his second season with the Cleveland Cavaliers who were visiting Toronto for a matchup with the Raptors. He’d finish with 56 points on 50 percent shooting from the field while connecting on 6-of-12 three-pointers.
James used 36 field goals attempts to secure the 50-piece while also grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing out 5 assists in 48 minutes of work. Fellow Cleveland starters, Drew Gooden and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, finished with 24 and 10, respectively. Meanwhile, despite LeBron’s heroics, the Cavs would eventually lose 105-98 to Jalen Rose and Chris Bosh’s Raptors behind 30 points from Rose.
The 2005 performance from the young ‘Video Game James’ is currently the third-highest scoring output of LeBron’s career. He’d go for 57 in November of 2017 against the Washington Wizards and 61 on March of 2014 in a matchup with the Charlotte Bobcats. Overall, James has exceeded the 50-point mark 13 times, the most recent of which coming this season at Miami when the Los Angeles Lakers forward went for 51.
Following that game back in ’05, then teammate Drew Gooden spoke to the AP about LeBron’s epic performance.
“They were doing all types of defenses against him, but he
still kept scoring,” Gooden said. “I just looked and thought, who
would have thought someone like LeBron James would come out of high school and do this in his second year in the NBA? I looked at the clock, and he had 48 points with like five minutes left.”
Alongside Gooden and Big Z, the Cleveland starting five the night LeBron scored 56 was rounded out with Ira Newble and Eric Snow. The Raptors starting five included Loren Woods, Rafer Alston and Mo Peterson along with Rose and Bosh. As an encore to that 50-spot performance, the young King would go on to also score 29 points in a win over the Detroit Pistons two days later.
