Lakers’ LeBron James joins Jason Kidd, Chris Paul in historic assist club

LeBron James added another milestone to his historic career on Friday night, becoming just the fourth player in NBA history to reach 12,000 career assists during the Los Angeles Lakers’ 101-73 win versus the Phoenix Suns.

The 41-year-old made history early in the first quarter, firing a full-court pass to Deandre Ayton for an easy basket with 7:49 left on the clock. It was his second assist of the night and the 12,000th of his career, placing him alongside John Stockton (15,806), Chris Paul (12,552), and Jason Kidd (12,091) as the only players to ever reach the milestone.

ASSIST NUMBER 12,000!

LeBron James finds Deandre Ayton down low for the bucket

LeBron becomes the 4th player in NBA History to reach this milestone! pic.twitter.com/8otv7xk5PX

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 11, 2026

James finished the night with 28 points, 12 assists, and six rebounds, leading a short-handed Lakers squad to its 52nd win of the season. Los Angeles (52-29) secured home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs and has now won 15 of its last 19 games. The team remains one game behind the Denver Nuggets (53-28) for the third seed but holds the tiebreaker.

Though the Lakers were without Luka Doncic (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique), they controlled the game early, with James either scoring or assisting on nine of the team’s first 10 field goals to build a 16-point lead.

Over 59 games this season, James is averaging 21.0 points, 7.2 assists, and 6.1 rebounds per game across, while shooting 51.7 from the field and 32.1 from three-point range.

Earlier in the season, he also became the NBA’s all-time leader in games played, surpassing Robert Parish with his 1,612th appearance on March 21.

Up next, the Lakers will host the Utah Jazz on Sunday night.

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