LeBron James’ Pursuit Of NBA Scoring Record Pushes Demand For Two Lakers Games Next Week

LeBron James is in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s neighborhood and pretty soon he’ll be kicking down the door.

After putting up a 28-point triple-double in the Lakers’ 129-123 overtime win over the Knicks Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, James is now 89 points shy of breaking Kareem’s mark. The Lakers (24-28) visit the Indiana Pacers (24-28) Thursday night.

As fans do the math on the possible dates when James will break the record, tickets for two games next week are skyrocketing in price, according to ticketing technology company Logitix.

Logitix evaluated what fans are paying for Lakers’ home games against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Feb. 7 and the Milwaukee Bucks on Feb. 9.

Since Jan. 25, fans are paying $681.26 per ticket on average for the game against the Thunder and $674.17 for the game against the Bucks. Before Jan. 25, fans paid only $228.27 per ticket for the Thunder game and $397.25 for the Bucks game. On average, fans paid $241.52 per ticket for all Lakers home games in January.

Evaluating sales on Feb. 1 only, fans paid $598.03 per ticket for the Thunder game and $963.09 for the Bucks game. No other Lakers games are seeing a significant impact in price.

“This type of ticketing trend is a lot of fun to follow as fans speculate when they might witness history,” said Greg Nortman, President of Logitix. “Our analytics team at Logitix will see shifts in prices in real time as LeBron closes in on the record. Right now, it looks to be a coin flip if he’ll break the record on Feb. 7 or Feb. 9. If LeBron puts up 50 tonight, that trend will swing immediately to increased demand for the 7th. If he scores 15 tonight, I’m sure we’ll see prices rise for the game on the 9th. If he continues to score right on his average, demand for both games will remain high for the next several days.”

Logitix evaluated sold tickets across multiple ticket exchanges. Their data does not factor in list prices or ticketing fees.

James, who turned 38 on Dec. 30, is averaging 30.2 points per game. Had he played against Brooklyn on Monday, he would have been on pace to break the NBA scoring record Saturday in New Orleans. But he sat out that game with soreness in his left foot.

That pushed the timeline back to Tuesday at home against the Thunder, or possibly Feb. 9 at home against the Bucks.

“I’m going to do it,” James told reporters. “It’s just a matter of time when I’m going to do it. I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be in this league for at least a few more years.”