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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James enters Wednesday evening's game against the San Antonio Spurs at Crypto.com Arena needing 178 points to surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA's career scoring leader.
James scored 46 points -- two off his season high -- in Tuesday's 133- 115 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers in a game the Lakers never led. It was the fourth time in James' 11 games since Dec. 30 that he topped 40 points.
James has scored 38,210 points in 1,404 games over 20 seasons. Abdul- Jabbar scored 38,387 points in 1,560 games over 20 seasons.
James is sixth in the league in scoring, averaging 30.2 points per game. If he maintains his average and does not miss a game, he would set the record Feb. 4 in a game at New Orleans.
James scored 21 and 39 in two games against the Spurs, both Laker victories. The Lakers are trying to complete a sweep of the four-game season series against San Antonio. They also won 123-92 Nov. 20 in a game James missed because of a strained left adductor.
The Lakers (22-26) are 13th in the 15-team Western Conference, 1 1/2 games behind the Golden State Warriors in the race for the conference's final spot in the play-in tournament.
The Spurs (14-33) are 14th in the conference.
The game will be televised by Spectrum SportsNet at 7:30 p.m.