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LeBron James When Facing Elimination

Posted by Mike Lynch on June 13, 2017

UPDATED 5/23/2023

A quick blog post, just to save this table as a reference and for posterity...

A few years ago, we ran a blog post which featured a comparison of various players when facing elimination from the playoffs. At the time, LeBron James appeared to be objectively the best of the elite group we looked at. Since that time, he's played 11 more games facing elimination, winning seven of them. For his career, LeBron is now 14-112when facing elimination, with averages of 33.7 PPG, 10.7 RPG and 7.5 APG with an average Game Score of 27.1. For comparison's sake, Michael Jordan's average Game Score when facing elimination was 23.3. Furthermore, LeBron's 33.7 PPG is the highest in NBA history by a player facing elimination with more than ten such games (Jordan averaged 31.3 and Wilt Chamberlain averaged 31.1). Some point to the 2011 NBA Finals as a case of LeBron going out meekly (and they'd be right). But since then, he's faced elimination 18 times, winning 12 times and putting up these insane numbers: 35.5 PPG, 11.3 RPG and 7.6 APG, with an average Game Score of 30.1! Here are his lines for his 26 career games when facing playoff elimination, with links to each of the box scores if you'd like further details. And remember to bookmark this page the next time someone argues LeBron hasn't been a clutch performer.

Playoffs Table
Date Tm Opp MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA TRB AST STL BLK TOV PTS GmSc
2006-05-21 CLE DET L (-18) 46:45 11 24 0 4 5 8 8 2 1 0 3 27 15.6
2007-06-14 CLE SAS L (-1) 46:29 10 30 2 7 2 6 6 10 0 0 6 24 7.8
2008-05-16 CLE BOS W (+5) 46:39 9 23 1 3 13 15 12 6 2 1 8 32 21.6
2008-05-18 CLE BOS L (-5) 46:48 14 29 3 11 14 19 5 6 2 0 2 45 32.8
2009-05-28 CLE ORL W (+10) 45:30 11 24 0 2 15 19 14 12 1 1 4 37 33.3
2009-05-30 CLE ORL L (-13) 44:53 8 20 2 8 7 11 7 7 0 1 3 25 16.1
2010-05-13 CLE BOS L (-9) 46:12 8 21 2 4 9 12 19 10 3 1 9 27 22.1
2011-06-12 MIA DAL L (-10) 40:21 9 15 2 5 1 4 4 6 1 1 6 21 13.6
2012-06-07 MIA BOS W (+19) 44:49 19 26 2 4 5 9 15 5 0 0 4 45 36.4
2012-06-09 MIA BOS W (+13) 47:32 9 21 1 5 12 17 12 2 1 1 3 31 22.4
2013-06-03 MIA IND W (+23) 40:49 8 17 1 2 15 16 8 4 2 1 2 32 29.2
2013-06-18 MIA SAS W (+3) 49:46 11 26 1 5 9 12 10 11 3 1 6 32 25.8
2013-06-20 MIA SAS W (+7) 45:00 12 23 5 10 8 8 12 4 2 0 2 37 32.5
2014-06-15 MIA SAS L (-17) 41:16 10 21 3 9 8 9 10 5 0 2 1 31 26.8
2015-06-16 CLE GSW L (-8) 46:42 13 33 2 10 4 8 18 9 2 0 6 32 20.2
2016-06-13 CLE GSW W (+15) 42:38 16 30 4 8 5 8 16 7 3 3 2 41 39.2
2016-06-16 CLE GSW W (+14) 42:35 16 27 3 6 6 8 8 11 4 3 1 41 42.5
2016-06-19 CLE GSW W (+4) 46:49 9 24 1 5 8 10 11 11 2 3 5 27 23.1
2017-06-09 CLE GSW W (+21) 40:46 11 22 3 8 6 10 10 11 1 0 2 31 27.7
2017-06-12 CLE GSW L (-9) 46:13 19 30 2 5 1 4 13 8 2 1 2 41 36.2
2018-04-29 CLE IND W (+4) 43:25 16 25 2 3 11 15 8 7 4 0 4 45 38.8
2018-05-25 CLE BOS W (+10) 46:06 17 33 5 7 7 11 11 9 3 1 3 46 38.8
2018-05-27 CLE BOS W (+8) 48:00 12 24 3 8 8 11 15 9 0 2 8 35 24.4
2018-06-08 CLE GSW L (-23) 40:34 7 13 0 1 9 11 7 8 0 1 6 23 16.7
2021-06-03 LAL PHO L (-13) 41:25 11 26 3 10 4 6 9 7 2 2 3 29 22.8
2023-05-22 LAL DEN L (-2) 47:56 15 25 4 7 6 7 10 9 2 0 1 40 38.8
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/23/2023.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 13th, 2017 at 12:10 pm and is filed under Announcement, Basketball-Reference.com, Data, History, Playoffs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “LeBron James When Facing Elimination”

  1. daved Says: June 14th, 2017 at 5:03 pm

    What major player has played the most playoff games (in any sport) without ever having an elimination game? It can't be a huge number of people and/or games