LeBron James' Dominance Wows NBA Fans as Lakers Beat Blazers in In-Season Tournament

Six weeks away from his 39th birthday, LeBron James had his second 35-point game of the season on Friday night to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 107-95 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in the NBA in-season tournament.

James shot 13-of-22 from the field, dished out nine assists, grabbed five rebounds and had two steals in 35 minutes. He did this two days after putting up a triple-double against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Coming into this season, it was assumed the Lakers did a good job of building depth on their roster to take some of the pressure off James at this stage of his career.

When the Blazers got within seven points at the end of the third quarter, James was essentially a one-man offense in the fourth quarter to keep Los Angeles on top.

There aren't any new superlatives that can be said about what he's doing at this stage of his career, but that doesn't mean fans and analysts are any less impressed.

While it's only been 13 games, it seems that James will once again be tasked with elevating the Lakers. Anthony Davis had another inconsistent outing with 16 points on 8-of-19 shooting, 14 rebounds, three steals and six turnovers.

Austin Reaves only played 18 minutes off the bench and had just seven points on 1-of-4-shooting.

It's hilarious to look at what James is doing and think back to the season-opening loss to the Denver Nuggets when head coach Darvin Ham said the team was going to restrict his minutes in an attempt to keep him healthy.

James has averaged 34.4 minutes per game in 11 starts since then. He's putting up 25.9 points on 56.8 percent shooting (40.6 percent from three), 8.4 rebounds and 6.5 assists in those games.

The Lakers are back over .500 with a 7-6 record overall and have won each of their first three games in group play in the in-season tournament. Their final Group A game will be on Tuesday against the Utah Jazz (2-1 in group play) at Crypto.com Arena.

The winner of that matchup will advance to the quarterfinals. Before the Lakers get to the Jazz, they will host the Houston Rockets on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. ET.