The Milwaukee Bucks will face the Los Angeles Lakers in an NBA regular season game on Friday, March 8, 2024 (3/8/24) at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California.
How to watch: Fans can watch the game for FREE via a trial DirectTV Stream Or fuboTV. You can also watch via subscription to Sling TV, i.e. 50% off the first month.
Here’s what you need to know:
What: NBA regular season
WHO: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Los Angeles Lakers
When: Friday March 8, 2024
Or: Crypto.com Arena
Time: 10 p.m. ET
TV:ESPN
Channel search: Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice, Helmsman, DIRECTV,Flat, Hulu, fuboTV, Sling.
Direct: Sling (50% off the first month), DirectTV Stream (free try), fuboTV (free try)
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Here’s a recent story from the AP NBA:
Father Time is likely to suffer another defeat on Saturday.
LeBron James is nine points away from becoming the first NBA player to reach 40,000. It’s obviously reasonable to think he’ll get it when the Los Angeles Lakers host the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. James has scored at least nine points in each of his last 762 counting games, including the playoffs.
He has been held under nine points a total of nine times in 21 seasons. In other words, 40,000 are about to arrive. And with 50,000 points unlikely to happen – although you never know with 39-year-old James – it will be another moment certainly worth savoring.
“Nobody did it,” James said. “And for me to be in this position at this stage and at this time in my career, I think it’s pretty cool. But is it one of the best things I’ve done in my career? No. Does that mean anything? Of course. Why not ?
He never chased Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s goalscoring record; It just happened. He also never pursued Vince Carter’s record of 22 seasons; he’ll tie that mark next year, barring some sort of seismic shift in his plans or thinking. It’s always just about one thing, and that’s the ring.
The Lakers are not the favorites to win the title this season. But given the NBA’s oldest player’s current performance this week, Laker Nation still has plenty of reason to believe another run at the Larry O’Brien Trophy is possible.
What he did Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Clippers was pure theater. He outscored the Clippers 19-16 on his own in the fourth quarter, making five 3-pointers and leading the Lakers to a wild 116-112 victory. And then on Thursday night – a back-to-back game for a 39-year-old suffering from a bad ankle – he played 39 minutes, scored 31 points and made a huge chase block that became a game-saving play to help the Lakers win. get an overtime victory against Washington.
“That’s why he takes good care of himself,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “The fruits of his labor are on full display with pieces like this.”
Wizards are evil, of course. But a win is a win, and the Lakers continue to stack them up. They are 9-3 in their last 12 games, are five games above .500 and now have a chance against Denver in a rematch of last season’s Western Conference Finals shift.
That’s James’ goal for Saturday. I don’t get 40,000 points.
“We just want to get better,” James said.
It’s cliché, but true. That said, it just does a ton of things that are unprecedented.
He’s going to average around 25 points this season. There hasn’t been an NBA “oldest player” averaging 10 points since John Stockton scored 10.8 per game in 2002-03. James will likely finish with the highest scoring average of any oldest player ever; Abdul-Jabbar was the oldest player in the league averaging 23.4 points in 1985-86.
Here’s another oldie but goodie: James was an All-Star last month. No one had been an All-Star in a season where he was the oldest player in the league since 1991, when Robert Parish did so.
“It’s been an absolute honor to be able to step on the field throughout my career and be out there with the greatest players in the world year after year,” James said in Indianapolis, when he was All- Star for the 20th edition. times in his 21 seasons.
The NBA couldn’t have timed this better: Lakers vs. Nuggets, national television, Saturday night in prime time, James is approaching a milestone that no one has ever reached and no one will anytime soon – or even Never. The funny thing is, he’s already reached 40,000 points, depending on how you count.
Let’s explain.
Officially, James has 39,991 points in regular season games through Saturday. Unofficially, one could argue that the actual total is 40,015 points (which would have meant he crossed the 40,000 mark on Thursday). Or maybe even 40,067 points (which would have meant the game-winning field goal came Sunday in Phoenix).
He had 24 points on December 9 in the in-season tournament final, when the Lakers defeated Indiana 123–109 to win that event’s inaugural crown. But this game was not a regular season game, does not count in the standings and does not count in the statistics either.
And he also scored 52 points in Play-In Tournament games, including 22 in a win over Golden State in 2021 and 30 against Minnesota in a win last season. These are not playoff games, nor are they regular season games. They just don’t count, period.
So he already did it. He’ll do it for real on Saturday. Before long, he’ll be back to the grind of the playoffs, already underway, but it’s a moment he’ll relish.
“Achieving achievements and reaching milestones throughout my career all mean something to me. Absolutely,” James said. “Obviously there is a pecking order where some are superior to others. But I’d be lying to you if I said no, it doesn’t mean anything. This is absolutely the case.
This will not be the last great moment of his career. But no one knows how many greats James has left. And that’s why it will be a moment to savor.
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