"Chalk it up"- LA Clippers guard describes LeBron James troubling Toronto Raptors with unmatched basketball IQ

Norman Powell believes that LeBron James' basketball IQ was the biggest impediment to the Toronto Raptors making an impact in the NBA when Powell played for the team.

LeBron James had an impressive 12-2 record against Toronto in the 2016-2018 straight postseasons. Appearing on Paul George's Podcast P, Powell, who played for the Raptors, for eight years, said James had a counter for everything they did to try and stop him.

Norman Powell described playing against LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers and said:

"Lebron had our number like every single year. My rookie year was the best series that we had against them. We took them to game 6. After that it was night night, it was like no matter what we did he had a counter to that."

He was astounded by James' basketball IQ, and said:

"This dude's mind is like on a totally different level. He knows our stuff, he knows their stuff and he telling the audibles for their team to adjust to our defensive schemes..." Powell said, "...It was moments like that where we were like aight man, let's chalk it up,"

The LA Clippers played with Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan when LeBron James terrorized them in Toronto.

LeBron James still going strong in his 21st year in the league

LeBron James is now 38 years old and playing in his 21st season in the league. He has managed to win four NBA titles and has made 10 trips to the NBA Finals in his illustrious career.

Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown was 35 years old when he began coaching James with the Cavs in 2005. He is amazed at the Lakers star's stamina and longevity

"Shoot, I got fired in Cleveland and I was like, I need to take a year off, and then the second year came around and I said, man, this is ok. So I took a second year off. For him to go 21 straight years is ridiculous." Brown said before the Kings-Lakers preseason game.

James has had his share of ups and downs though, and the most prevalent issue for him is injuries, having missed 27, 26 and 27 games over the past three seasons, respectively.

Despite the injuries, the player has continued to gather more accolades. Last season he broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record of the league's all-time leading scorer at 38,387 points. He would later come back from a tendon injury in the same 2022-2023 season and lead LA to the Western Conference finals.

It remains to be seen if he will have another successful season as the new-look Lakers aim to contend for an NBA title.