LeBron James has long been a bane to the Toronto Raptors‘ conference title aspirations, but this season, the Raptors are seemingly on their way to the top of the East because of the improved plays of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, a stouter defense, and a remarkably deep bench. Those qualities weren’t enough for Toronto to stop the Cleveland Cavaliers from notching a 132-129 win on Wednesday, however, largely because of another huge statistical night from the four-time MVP.
A couple of days after authoring a 40-point triple-double, James went back to work and dropped 35 points, seven rebounds, and 17 assists in 39 minutes of action. As if those numbers are not impressive enough, James also became the first non-guard in NBA history to dish out 17 dimes in a game and have zero turnovers. Nil. Nada. Nothing at all.
It’s not always that a player would have that much usage in a game and that many assists and yet finish with zero errors. In fact, according to the ever-reliable Basketball Reference, LeBron James has joined the small group of players that had 17-assist and zero-turnover games since 1983.
As noted also by ClutchPoints’ Tomer Azarly, it was just the third such performance by any player since May of 2007. In that group are Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo.
LeBron James has truly turned it up a notch over the last two months for the Cavs. After averaging a triple-double in February, James is close to accomplishing it again this March in which he is putting up 31.4 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 9.9 assists.
With five more March games to go for Cleveland, James has a high chance of slashing a triple-double for the second month in a row.
James and the Cavs will play the going-nowhere Phoenix Suns this Friday at home.