For LeBron James, the win mattered more than the streak.
James’ NBA-record run of 1,297 consecutive regular-season games with at least 10 points ended Thursday night at Toronto, and he was the one who made the decision to have it end. Instead of trying to score to win the game — and extend his streak — he set up Rui Hachimura for the final shot.
Hachimura connected on a 3-pointer at the buzzer, James got the game-winning assist, and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Raptors 123-120. James finished with eight points and had no regrets.
“None,” James said. “We won.”
James’ streak started Jan. 6, 2007 and lasted nearly two decades. It was, by far, the longest such streak in NBA history: Michael Jordan had 866 consecutive double-digit scoring games, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was third best at 787 games, and Karl Malone had the fourth-longest run at 575.
James was fully aware that if Hachimura scored, the streak would end. But Hachimura, in that moment, gave the Lakers the best chance of winning, James figured. And James didn’t hesitate to fire the pass.
“Just playing the game the right way. You always make the right play,” James said. “That’s just been my M.O. That’s how I was taught the game. I’ve done that my whole career.”
James checked back into the game for the final time Thursday with 5:23 left, the outcome and the streak hanging in the balance.
He had six points on 3-of-15 shooting at that point. He scored with 1:46 left to tie the game and missed a 14-footer with 1:01 left that would have gotten him to double digits.
He didn’t take another shot — but could have. Lakers guard Austin Reaves gave James the ball with a few seconds left, but James was happy to get the assist.
“LeBron is acutely aware of how many points he has at that point,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “He did it like he’s done so many times. ... The basketball gods, if you do it the right way, they tend to reward you.”
The last time James was held under 10 points in the regular season was Jan. 5, 2007, when he had eight points for Cleveland in a 95-86 win over Milwaukee. He had 19 the next night against New Jersey, and the streak had rolled on ever since.
“You tip your hat to a guy who just cares about winning and making the right play,” Reaves said. “That’s what he’s done his whole career.”
James was held under 10 points twice in the playoffs during the regular-season streak, once in 2011 and again in 2014. Jordan still has the longest streak, counting playoffs, of double-digit scoring games at 1,045.
Including playoffs, James' streak ended at 865 consecutive 10-point games.
It would take a long, long time for someone to catch James’ regular-season total. Houston’s Kevin Durant now has the longest active streak at 267 games — meaning he’d have to play until he’s at least 49 or so to break the record. The next-longest streak is by Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has 170 consecutive double-digit efforts.
Gilgeous-Alexander could catch James — that is, if he keeps the streak going for another 14 years, when he’ll be 41.
“He’s such an unselfish player,” Lakers forward Jake LaRavia said of James. “He’s just playing the game of basketball. He had the opportunity but because of the player he is and just who he is as a person, he made the unselfish play, passed it to Rui and we won the game.”
James reaching double figures was usually an afterthought long before the start of fourth quarters. During the streak, he had reached the 10-point mark through three quarters 1,266 times entering Thursday.
But two of those single-digit games through three quarters had come in the last week or so: He had nine points going into the fourth against Dallas on Nov. 28, then had six points going into the fourth against Phoenix on Monday night.
James managed to extend the streak that night. One game later, it was done — and he celebrated anyway.
“I always just make the right play. That’s automatic, win, lose or draw,” James said. “You make the right play, the game gods are always giving back to me.”
By his own description, he’s not in rhythm yet, after missing the entire preseason and all but six games of the regular season with an injury — and it showed as he missed his first six shots on Thursday, with three of them not even close.
And he remembers all the times he's been criticized for passing the ball in big moments. He always said the right play is the right play, and those words rung true again Thursday.
“I remember everything that’s been negatively said about me and my game throughout my career,” James said. “And that aspect has been one of the most foolish things I’ve ever heard as far as making the right pass, making the right play. We are in the business of winning basketball games and my whole life I’ve just played the game that way. I’ve taught the game that way. I’ve won at every single level I’ve played at by playing the game that way.”
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James (right) drives to the basket as Toronto Raptors' Sandro Mamukelashvili (54) defends during second half NBA basketball action in Toronto on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James, left, is guarded by Toronto Raptors' Scottie Barnes (4) during second-half NBA basketball game action in Toronto, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran sent its response to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal to end the Iran war via Pakistani mediators on Sunday, but U.S. President Donald Trump quickly rejected it in a social media post as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” — the latest setback to efforts to resolve the standoff in the Persian Gulf that has throttled shipping and sent energy prices soaring.
Iranian state media reported that Tehran rejected the U.S. proposal as amounting to surrender, insisting instead on “war reparations by the U.S., full Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, an end to sanctions, and the release of seized Iranian assets.”
Washington’s latest proposal addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the strait and roll back Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump's rejection of the Iranian response included no details. In an earlier post, he accused Tehran of “playing games” with the United States for nearly 50 years, adding: "They will be laughing no longer!"
Trump is giving diplomacy “every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC earlier.
Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard publicly since the war began, “issued new and decisive directives for the continuation of operations and the powerful confrontation with the enemies” while meeting with the head of the joint military command, the state broadcaster reported, with no details.
The fragile ceasefire was tested when a drone ignited a small fire on a ship off Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drones entering their airspace. The UAE said it shot down two drones and blamed Iran. No casualties were reported, and no one immediately claimed responsibility.
Qatar's Foreign Ministry called the ship attack a “dangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and safety of maritime trade routes and vital supplies in the region." The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center gave no details about the ship's owner or origin.
Kuwait Defense Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al Otaibi said forces responded to drones but did not say where they came from.
Iran and armed allied groups such as the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group have used drones to carry out hundreds of strikes since the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.
Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. Iran has largely blocked the strategic waterway that's key to the global flow of oil, natural gas and fertilizer since the war began, rattling world markets.
The U.S. military in turn has blockaded Iranian ports since April 13, saying it has turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four. On Friday, it struck two Iranian oil tankers it said were trying to breach the blockade. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy says any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a “heavy assault” on U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships.
Another sticking point in negotiations is Iran’s highly enriched uranium. The U.N. nuclear agency says Iran has more than 440 kilograms (970 pounds) enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons grade.
In an interview posted late Saturday, an Iranian military spokesperson said forces were on “full readiness” to protect sites where uranium is stored.
“We considered it possible that they might intend to steal it through infiltration operations or heli-borne operations,” Brig. Gen. Akrami Nia told the IRNA news agency.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an excerpt of an interview with CBS airing Sunday said the war isn't over because the enriched uranium needs to be taken out of Iran. “Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there,’ and I think it can be done physically,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Moscow’s proposal to take enriched uranium from Iran to help negotiate a settlement remains on the table.
The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely at its Isfahan nuclear complex, the International Atomic Energy Agency director-general told The Associated Press last month. The facility was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in the 12-day war last year and faced less intense attacks this year.
Iran's deputy foreign minister warned against a planned French-British effort that aims to support maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz after hostilities are over.
“The presence of French and British vessels, or those of any other country, for any possible cooperation with illegal U.S. actions in the Strait of Hormuz that violate international law will be met with a decisive and immediate response from the armed forces,” Kazem Gharibabadi said on social media.
French President Emmanuel Macron responded by saying it won't be a military deployment but an international mission to secure shipping once conditions allow.
Several attacks against ships in the Persian Gulf have occurred over the past week, and a U.S. effort to “guide” ships through the strait was quickly paused.
South Korea announced initial findings from an investigation that said two unidentified objects struck the South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU about one minute apart while it was anchored in the strait last week, causing an explosion and fire. Officials have yet to determine who was responsible.
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
Women walk in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A Revolutionary Guard soldier stands at the counter of a fast food restaurant in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The front page of the Sunday May 10, 2026, edition of Iranian newspaper, Jamejam, is seen with a cartoon satirizing the U.S. President Donald Trump that asks: "Open the the Strait of Hormuz" on a news stand in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Vehicles drive past banners showing portraits of the school children who were killed during a strike on a school in southern town of Minab on Feb. 28, at Tajrish square in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU is docked after being damaged from a fire following an explosion in the Strait of Hormuz, at a port in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 8, 2026. (Kim Sang-hun/Yonhap via AP)
Container ships sit at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, May 2, 2026.(Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
