{"id":663036,"date":"2026-03-17T14:49:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/663036\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T14:49:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:49:19","slug":"ageless-lebron-james-posterizes-jabari-smith-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/663036\/","title":{"rendered":"Ageless LeBron James posterizes Jabari Smith Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/los-angeles-lakers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> have <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/los-angeles-lakers\/lakers-dream-seeding-matchup-2026-nba-playoffs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">an NBA playoff spot to chase this late into the season<\/a>. The ageless wonder <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/players\/b1a9094f\/lebron-james\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LeBron James<\/a> ignited those postseason hopes massively on Monday. All after posterizing <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/players\/aa7e093c\/jabari-smith-jr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jabari Smith Jr<\/a>. of the Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n<p>Smith attempted to time his leap and execute a block near the rim. Except James beat him to the hoop by throwing down this jam early in the first quarter.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">41-YEAR OLD LEBRON JAMES POSTERIZES JABARI SMITH JR. \ud83e\udd2f<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5hu3t1Ovaf\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/5hu3t1Ovaf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ClutchPoints\/status\/2033722764897751278?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles took the 13-11 lead during that transition sequence. Then engaged in a back-and-forth with the other aspiring Western Conference playoff contender.<\/p>\n<p>LA\u00a0led 41-38 near the seven-minute mark of the second quarter after that James poster dunk. But Kevin Durant managed to hand Houston the lead at 46-45 after getting two free throws in with under four minutes left.<\/p>\n<p>How LeBron James, Lakers fared in first half<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3737333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Kevin-Durant-vs.-LeBron-James.jpg\" alt=\"Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) dribbles the ball as Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) defends during the first quarter at Toyota Center.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"  \/>Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Monday&#8217;s matchup inside the Toyota Center presented a possible playoff preview.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/standings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles sits as the third-best team out west<\/a> behind the San Antonio Spurs (49-18) and Oklahoma City Thunder (53-15). But the Lakers entered the week of St. Patrick&#8217;s Day and March Madness riding a five-game winning streak.<\/p>\n<p>Houston and Durant, meanwhile, trail behind the Lakers as the fourth-place team in the Western Conference. The Rockets entered with a 41-25 overall record and beating the New Orleans Pelicans 107-105 on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>James became limited on the scoring side, though, despite the thunderous dunk. He scored just four points through 13 minutes. The four-time NBA champion dished out two assists and grabbed one rebound.<\/p>\n<p>Luka Doncic handled the scoring load for the Lakers in delivering 23 first-half points with under 2:40 in the second. Houston took the 57-51 lead at halftime.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers have an NBA playoff spot to chase this late into the season. The ageless&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,2497,185,150,6,11],"class_list":{"0":"post-663036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jabari-smith-jr","10":"tag-lebron-james","11":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nba-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116245075207452318","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}