NBA Playoffs: 5 Best All-Round Postseason Games of LeBron James' Career
LeBron James has had tons of memorable and spectacular performances throughout his journey in the NBA.
He is NBA's leading scorer in the playoffs and leads MJ by around 1000 points on the league's all-time playoffs scoring list. He played in his 8th consecutive NBA Finals this year, a rare feat to achieve in modern-day competitive basketball, and averages a barbaric 28.9 points per game in the postseason so far in his career.
Also read: Reviewing LeBron James' Six NBA Finals Losses
In the upcoming slideshow, I'll be going over his top 5 greatest playoff games in his career. Keep in mind that this is just one single isolated opinion and it's pretty hard to choose only five games. But I'm going to give it a try, so let's get to it.
#5 Game 1: 2018 Finals vs Warriors
Stat line: 51 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal and 1 block
It was the 4th consecutive year that the Golden State Warriors were meeting Cavs in the NBA Finals. But this was different. The Cavs were unexpected to make it, tracing back to the turbulent season they had, marred by losses, consistent roster changes and injuries.
The King had a historic performance to start his 8th consecutive NBA Finals. LeBron’s 51-point night was only the sixth 50-point night in NBA Finals history. This Cavaliers team was put together on the fly last summer, blown up and reconstructed at the trade deadline, leaving behind a group of playoff-inexperienced basketball players.
James said he decided he was going to go all out and push this team to the limit and were on pace to sneak away with a Game 1 win at Oracle Arena. In the end, the game went into overtime after a bizarre final few seconds that saw Smith try to dribble out the clock despite the fact that the game was tied. The Warriors then pulled away in OT, winning 124-114.
James notched his eighth 40-point game during this playoff run to tie Hall of Famer Jerry West’s feat in 1965 for most in a single postseason. He finished with 51 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. LeBron and the Cavs could not run past the repercussions from this heartbreaking loss as the Warriors swept them 4-0 to win the 2018 NBA Finals.