Listing the 3 seasons of LeBron James' NBA career in which he played the fewest games
LeBron James' 19th NBA season ended with the LA Lakers missing the Play-In tournament with a 33-49 record and 'The King' also missed out on a chance to win the scoring title, after his 30.3 points per game weren't even ranked due to not playing enough games.
In James' four seasons with the LA Lakers, the team has a championship, a first-round exit, and two seasons in which it could not even reach the NBA Playoffs.
In terms of LeBron James' individual seasons, he's put up great numbers, as usual. However, in three of those four seasons (excluding the title-winning and Covid-shortened 2019-20 season), he's missed several games due to injuries, which has hindered the team and his own consistency.
LeBron James' fewest games played in a single regular season in his NBA career
At age 37, some could expect this trend to continue in James' career, as the time simply catches up to anyone. However, we should not be quick to dismiss the LA Lakers and their chances going forward, as LeBron James still looks dominant when healthy, and Anthony Davis remains a top player in the league who desperately needs to be on the floor consistently.
In this article, we will give you LeBron James' seasons in which he played the fewest games. Let's find out how many of those came during his time with the LA Lakers.
Without further ado, let’s start.
#3 2021-22 NBA season - 56 games
LeBron James had a 2021-22 NBA regular season with tremendous scoring outbursts, which put him right in the middle of the fight for the scoring title until he missed the final part of the year and did not reach the minimum threshold to qualify (58 games).
Still, James averaged 30.3 points per game with 52/35/75 shooting splits, along with 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game in 56 games. Small injuries and injury management kept James off the court for 26 games this year.
With him in the lineup, the LA Lakers went 25-31 in the 2021-22 campaign.
#2 2018-19 NBA season - 55 games
In his first season with the LA Lakers, a groin injury sustained during Christmas Day against the Golden State Warriors massively hindered LeBron James' regular season.
Ultimately, the team missed the 2019 NBA Playoffs after James appeared in 55 games, the lowest of his entire career for a single season at the time.
With James on the court, the 2018-19 LA Lakers went 28-27, as 'The King' put up 27.4 points, 8.5 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game, along with a 51/33/66 shooting split.
At the time, it was LeBron James' first time missing the NBA Playoffs since 2005.
#1 2020-21 NBA season - 45 games
After winning the 2020 NBA championship in the Orlando bubble and a solid 2019-20 regular season in Anthony Davis' first year with the team, James and the LA Lakers struggled in the 2020-21 campaign.
The 2020-21 regular season was shortened to 72 games (from the usual 82) after the turnaround from the 2020 NBA Finals to the new season's opening night was the shortest in NBA history (71 days).
A high ankle sprain was mostly to blame for LeBron James playing only 45 games in the 2020-21 NBA regular season, the fewest of his entire career and the only time he's played under 50 regular season games so far (including the 66-game 2011-12 regular season).
James averaged 25 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.8 assists per game in those 45 games, while also putting up a 51/36/69 shooting split. The LA Lakers managed to grab the seventh seed in the West and faced the Phoenix Suns in the first round.
James and Davis had the LA Lakers up 2-1 in that series before AD went down with an injury and Phoenix ended the series in six games.