The German international Isaiah Hartenstein and the Oklahoma City Thunder remain on the road to success in the NBA in the new year. LeBron James is once again making history.
Isaiah Hartenstein and the Oklahoma City Thunder start the new year with their twelfth consecutive victory. The team around the German center won 113-105 against the Minnesota Timberwolves and remains at the top of the Western Conference with 27 wins.
Hartenstein had a strong game with 15 points and 10 rebounds, second only to point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The candidate for the most important player (MVP) excelled with 40 points. “He’s the MVP, no question about it. There’s no discussion about that,” said Hartenstein, praising his point guard, and also provided the reason for it: “He scores 40 points even though he goes into the game and actually just looks to set his teammates up. That’s what characterizes him.”
The franchise has only managed twelve consecutive wins once before, in the 2012-13 season with superstar Kevin Durant. The Seattle Super Sonics’ record, from which Oklahoma City Thunder emerged in 2008, is just two wins away. The fact that the series continued against Minnesota was mainly thanks to the Thunder’s strong second half. “We played our basketball again,” said Hartenstein: ‘That turned the game around for us.’
Meanwhile, a strong performance by the now 40-year-old LeBron James against his former team was not enough to secure victory for the Los Angeles Lakers. The 20-time All-Star scored 23 points just one day after his milestone birthday, but Los Angeles lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers 110:122. Cleveland leads the league with 29 wins, while the Lakers are in seventh place in the West with 18 wins.
This makes James the first player to play in the NBA as both a teenager and in his 40s. James is playing his 22nd NBA season – putting him on a par with record holder Vince Carter. “To be honest, if I really wanted to, I could probably play this game at a high level for another five or seven years,” James said.
But he left open the question of how long he would continue his career in the NBA. He will not be on the court for the five to seven years he mentioned. But he ruled out another move: “I would be happy if it ended here,” James said. “That’s my plan.” He joined the Lakers in 2018 ”to start the last phase of my career and end it here.”
The Boston Celtics celebrated a 125-71 victory against the Toronto Raptors. The last time the record champions conceded fewer points was in February 2013. The most successful scorer in an evenly matched final team was All-Star Jayson Tatum with 23 points.
