It’s a mission the Thunder admits is impossible, but one Oklahoma City must take on anyway, that is, if the team has any hope of completing the championship quest that came up oh so short a year ago.

The task: stopping LeBron James.

Very few seem to have a solution to that 6-foot-8 inch problem these days and even fewer are equipped to actually step between the lines and try to solve it.

Just when it looked as if James, the Miami Heat star who powered his team through the Thunder and to the NBA title last June, couldn’t get any better, he came back the best we’ve ever seen him. He’s shooting 56.5 percent from the field and 42 percent from the 3-point line, both career highs. He’s added a career- and team-high 8.1 rebounds to complement the other three statistical categories in which he paces the Heat: points, assists and steals.

“He’s at a level that only a few players in this league have ever had,” (Scott) Brooks said. “You can do a lot of good things and sound defensive principles against him and he still figures out ways to have an efficient game.”

via Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman