Watch LeBron James drop 56 spot on Warriors, Lakers end slide with win

LOS ANGELES — Despite ranking third in NBA history in scoring and closing fast on Karl Malone in second, LeBron James has somehow never been thought of as a pure scorer.

On Saturday night, James showed he is still more than capable of piling up the points in a variety of ways.

James scored a season-high 56 points and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors 124-116 to snap a four-game losing streak. It was his third-most points in a regular-season game and 13th time he has had at least 50.

“I felt pretty good with my game tonight, every part of the floor, and I was able to make a couple plays to help us win,” said James, who had a career-best 61 for Miami against Charlotte in 2014.

While James downplayed his 19-of-31 shooting, including 6 of 11 from 3-point range with three consecutive to put the Lakers up 100-97 in the fourth quarter, friends and foes were more than willing to praise his performance.

“He was phenomenal tonight,” said Lakers forward Carmelo Anthony, who had 14 points. “The way that it came, in the rhythm of the game and the flow of the game, us making that comeback and him being a big reason for us coming back and making that run that he did. He just put us on his back tonight.”

“He’s obviously such a handful coming downhill, and then when he gets his 3-point shot going like he did in the second half, makes it pretty difficult to try and guard him,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “He was brilliant tonight. LeBron was amazing.”

Anthony completed a three-point play to give the Lakers a 114-112 lead with 3:29 to play, and Malik Monk hit a 3 to extend that lead to five after Austin Reeves stole Curry’s pass. James then threw down a thunderous alley-oop from Monk, who stole the inbound pass