Ahead of NBA playoff series, OKC Thunder marvel at LeBron James' longevity
· Yahoo Sports
The Oklahoma City Thunder will face off against the Los Angeles Lakers in a star-studded Round 2 series. Plenty of household names populate both sides as the 2026 NBA playoffs dwindle to eight teams. Three 41-year-olds are some of the bigger names in Mark Daigneault, JJ Redick and LeBron James.
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Think we know which one of those three is different than the rest. James continues to defy Father Time. The 41-year-old carried the Lakers to a Round 1 series win over the Houston Rockets. Without Luka Doncic and just two games of Austin Reaves, he averaged 23.2 points, 8.3 assists and 7.2 rebounds.
Unreal numbers by arguably the greatest player ever. James may no longer be the NBA's best player, but he's barely aged in his 40s. To the point that he has All-Star-level play left in him. Getting ready to face the Lakers, the Thunder marveled at his longevity.
"Obviously, the endurance and the level of play. It's one thing to play deep into your career. It's another thing to play a level that he's been able to play at. Obviously, the series speaks for itself this past series, but the last couple of seasons. It's just amazing what he's doing, physically, mentally, emotionally," Daigneault said. "In there, he had a lot of short offseasons. We just went through for the first time. He's done that however many times in his career. We have nothing but respect for him. He's an incredible player. Obviously one of the greatest of all time, but he's still playing elite level."
Chet Holmgren also talked about James' NBA-record career. By the time the latter started his journey, the former was barely one year old. The fact that James has been teammates with his son, Bronny James, for a couple of years now puts things into perspective about how absurd his longevity has been.
The Thunder could deploy Holmgren to slow down James. Expect the Los Angeles NBA superstar to be a downhill scorer throughout the playoff series. That naturally means some collision courses between the two All-Star players as the seven-footer is OKC's rim protector.
"First of all, it’s very impressive. Growing up, I used to play at Life Time a lot. There were a lot of 41-year-olds who weren’t moving too well. I think that's extremely impressive," Holmgren said. "Not only the physical ability, but also just the mentality and being focused and locked in for that long period of time. I think it's impressive. So credit to him for that. But this is about us figuring out how the Thunder can beat the Lakers."
Of the Thunder's two Round 2 possibilities, the Lakers definitely carried juicier storylines. After all, this is the first time James will play in the NBA playoffs at OKC since the 2012 NBA Finals. He won his first championship in that matchup with the Miami Heat.
Over a decade later, James is still putting up monster numbers. But the Thunder will enter the Round 2 series as the heavy favorite. They're tailor-made to completely shut down Los Angeles' offense. Especially if Doncic misses time. Let's see if the 41-year-old still has a few tricks up his sleeve to make this one-sided matchup on paper interesting on the court.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Ahead of NBA playoff series, OKC Thunder marvel at LeBron James' longevity