LeBron James ended his historic 10-point streak after 1297 games as he scored only eight points in the Lakers’ most recent win against the Raptors.
For the potential game-winning shot, James had a chance to beat his defender while driving in for a layup on his own with the game tied at 120-120 in the final seconds of the fourth quarter. However, he chose to pass the ball to Rui Hachimura instead of making the selfish play with an ulterior objective of keeping his streak alive.
RUI HACHIMURA FROM THE CORNER FOR THE WIN OFF THE LEBRON JAMES DIME!
🚨 @TISSOT BUZZER-BEATER 🚨
Everyone Gets 24 pic.twitter.com/6J38hGVRYK
— NBA (@NBA) December 5, 2025
Following the game, Lakers’ head coach JJ Redick addressed the sacrifice from James to make the right play and drop a dime for Rui Hachimura, who nailed the game-winning shot to seal their 123-120 win in Toronto.
“Yeah, just felt like in that situation for us tonight, we had the group on the floor that we wanted. The shot clock was off. You know, I didn’t feel the need to call a timeout, and knowing that, you know, trust AR with the ball, trust LeBron as a decision maker, and they went to fire,” said Redick while explaining why he didn’t call a timeout in the final play.
“And you know, I think it’s January 5th, 2007, a streak of whatever it is, 1,297 games. LeBron is acutely aware of how many points he has. You know, at that point, and like he’s done so many times in his career,” Redick further added while claiming that James has been ridiculed for doing exactly what he did tonight on several occasions in his career.
“I remember him getting ridiculed for it early on when he would make the right play, and his teammate would shoot the game-winner. He did it like he’s done so many times, and you just knew it was good as soon as it left Rui’s hands and just a big-time play.”
“The basketball gods, if you do it the right way, they tend to reward you,” said Redick in conclusion.
Subsequently, Austin Reaves (44 points, 10 rebounds) also spoke very highly about LeBron James in the locker room.
“I was just trying to get Bron the ball in a situation that he’s been in a million times. For all the people that have killed him his whole career for making the right play, if he shot that one, they would’ve said he should’ve passed it. If he passed it, they would say he should have shot it,” said Reaves while explaining the dilemma of being in LeBron James’ position.
“You tip your hat to a guy who just cares about winning and making the right play; that’s what he’s done his whole career. Thankful for him, obviously, that 10-point streak ends, but I guarantee if you ask him, winning is more important than points,” Reaves further added.
James finished the game with six rebounds and 11 assists to go along with those eight points on an incredibly inefficient night where he shot 4-of-17 from the field (23.5%) and 0-of-5 from beyond the arc.
Therefore, he clearly had sufficient chances to keep his streak alive. Hence, I’m not really sure if James deserves credit for an inefficient night for deciding to pass the ball instead of trying to finish the game on his own.
However, since the game was tied and could have gone into overtime even if James missed his own shot, this gave him an additional reason to consider taking the risk. Therefore, it is an encouraging sign to see that James was not selfish and chose the better look to help get the Lakers their win on the road.
Toronto is infamously called LeBronto for a reason, and that is, James almost always wins there. James has now extended his dominating record over the Raptors to 47 wins and 16 losses for his entire career (22-9 when playing in Toronto). The Lakers, who are now 16-5 for the season, will move on to face the Celtics in the next game tomorrow.
