These Are LeBron’s All-Time Best Playoff Performances, Ranked


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Even for his most ardent detractors, it’s difficult to talk about LeBron James and his career without lapsing into outright obsequiousness. He’s been to six straight Finals and has three championships to show for it, and along the way he’s logged some of the most dominant individual performances in league history.

Even before he started his remarkable run with the Big 3 Heat, he somehow managed to carry haphazardly-constructed Cavaliers teams to deep postseason runs, and in fact, some of his best playoff games happened during his pre-Miami days. Whether it was his play against the Pistons or those epic Wizards series in his first Cleveland run, those duels against the Spurs when LeBron was going full Flying Death Machine (shoutout Matt Moore) with the Heatles, or any of those games against The Warriors following The Return, LeBron has consistently delivered.

Today, we take a look back at some of those games that have made him one of the best postseason performers the NBA has ever seen.

10. Game 4, 2010 Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals Against The Bulls

LeBron had a phenomenal series against a prime Derrick Rose that year, but his Game 4 outing stood above the rest. He finished with a huge triple-double of 37 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists and made six of his nine attempts from downtown. Cleveland would go on to win the series in five games, but get ousted by the Celtics in the second round.

9. Game 3, 2015 Eastern Conference Finals Against The Hawks

The Hawks were coming off their best season in franchise history, and many thought they might pose a legitimate challenge to the Cavs, who were eyeing their first Finals appearance since LeBron Jame’s prodigal return from Miami.

The truth was that they never really stood a chance, and LeBron’s Game 3 performance was as dominant as it gets. He finished with 37 points, 18 rebounds, 13 assists, and three steals. Cleveland would complete the sweep the following game.

8. Game 4, 2014 Eastern Conference Semifinals Against The Nets

This particular series had quite the narrative going in. The Nets had somehow managed to sweep their regular-season series against the Big 3 Heat, which left some hapless pundits wondering whether a potential second-round upset was in the cards. The short answer to that was a resounding no.

LeBron James made damn sure of that. In Game 4, he tied his career playoff high by dropping 49 points on a hyper-efficient 16-of-24 shooting from the field. They’d knock off the Nets in five games, but they would end up meeting the same fate later in the Finals when the San Antonio Spurs ran a veritable basketball clinic on them that ultimately spelled the end of the Big 3 era in Miami.

7. Game 5, 2006 Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals Against The Wizards

This was really the first playoff series where we got to see what LeBron James was truly capable of. In Game 3 against the Wizards, he made a clutch layup (CRAB DRBBLE!) with just a few seconds left on the clock that gave the Cavs a 2-1 series lead.

Washington would even things back up in Game 4 and were on the cusp of taking Game 5 with time winding down in overtime, until LeBron was once again somehow able to drive baseline and get a game-winning layup. His final stat line was a ridiculous 45 points, seven rebounds, and six assists, on 14-of-23 shooting from the field.

6. Game 2, 2009 Eastern Conference Finals Against The Magic

What would a list like this be without one of LeBron’s most iconic moments? The Cavs had already dropped Game 1 on their home floor and were staring down the barrel of an 0-2 deficit heading back to Orlando.

But with one second remaining on the clock and Cleveland trailing 95-93, LeBron took the inbounds pass and proceeded to knock down a game-winning buzzer-beater to even the series. He finished with 35 points, five assists, and four rebounds. The celebration would be short-lived, however, as the Magic would eventually take the series in six games.

5. Game 1, 2013 Eastern Conference Finals Against The Pacers

The question of whether LeBron James is a crunch-time performer was put to rest years ago, and the fact that the past three performances on this list include game-winners in pressure-cooker playoff scenarios only serves to underscore that point.

LeBron has had some of his best postseason battles with Paul George and the Pacers, and this one belongs right up there near the top of the list. PG13 dropped 27 points, five assists, and four rebounds in Game 1 of the 2012 East Finals, but LeBron outdueled him to the tune of a 30-point, 10-rebound, 10-assists triple-double, to go along with the game-winning layup.

This series would go the distance, but LeBron and Co. would eventually outlast Indiana in Game 7 (another phenomenal performance by LeBron, by the way) en route to the Heat’s second straight championship.

4. Game 6, 2013 NBA Finals Against The Spurs

With San Antonio leading the series 3-2, Miami was on the ropes. Literally. Security had roped off the sidelines to keep fans from storming the court in anticipation of a Spurs championship victory.

To be fair, it was ultimately Ray Allen who was the hero of this game as he was responsible for one of the most clutch three-pointers in Finals history, which forced Game 7 where LeBron and the Heat would take home their second-straight title.

What you might’ve forgotten is that LeBron put up a monster triple-double – 32 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists – in the process.

3. Game 5, 2016 NBA Finals Against The Warriors

The entire series hinged on this very game. The Cavs were facing a historically-insurmountable 3-1 deficit, and the look on LeBron’s face as he sat pensively on the sidelines during warm-ups said it all. But Cleveland had been given a gift. The Warriors’ resident bruiser, Draymond Green, had been suspended for Game 5 for his altercation with LeBron in the previous contest.

LeBron took full advantage of the situation and put up a mind-boggling 41 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists, and three steals. Cleveland, of course, would go on to win the next two games and take home the chip, sparking a full year’s worth of 3-1 memes that have been the bane of Golden State’s existence ever since.

2. Game 6, 2012 Eastern Conference Finals Against The Celtics

The Celtics were one of the biggest roadblocks for LeBron on his path to basketball immortality. When Boston knocked the Cavs out of the second-round in 2010, it was arguably what pushed things over the edge and prompted LeBron’s move to South Beach to start the Big 3 Heat.

So they were a familiar foe in the 2012 conference finals as the Heat faced a win-or-go-home 3-2 deficit on the Celtics’ home court, not to mention the prospect of two straight disappointing seasons in Miami. But LeBron wasn’t having any of that talk as he dropped 45 points, grabbed 15 boards, and dished out five assists.

They’d go on to win Game 7 and eventually defeat the Thunder in the Finals to bring home the first championship of his career.

1. Game 5, 2007 Eastern Conference Finals Against The Pistons

As with Michael Jordan in the early ’90s, LeBron James had to overcome a monolithic Detroit Pistons team before he could get his first taste of the NBA Finals. With the Eastern Conference Finals tied 2-2, LeBron almost single-handedly secured a Cavs win as he scored 25 straight points in the fourth quarter and overtimes and 29 out of their last 30 points overall.

He finished with 48 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists. Cleveland would go on to take Game 6 to send LeBron to his inaugural Finals appearance, where he would unfortunately encounter a San Antonio Spurs team that was simply too talented and too experienced. He’d eventually exact his revenge a few years later, however.

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