What Are the Best and Worst Finals Games of LeBron’s Career?

LeBron James has played 49 NBA Finals games. I ranked them all.

LeBron James has already played 49 NBA Finals games in his long and storied career, with far too many incredible performances to remember. It’d be a surprise if he doesn’t hit 50 next summer, though it remains to be seen if he’ll do it in a Cleveland uniform.

No matter how you slice it, LeBron James is one of the greatest humans to ever don a basketball uniform. He’s played so many amazing games in just the Finals alone that it’s hard to remember them all. So I did the dirty work and went back to rank them all from worst to first . There are a few clunkers, but the list also contains some of the all-time great NBA Finals performances.

This year we saw the whole array from James — one of his five worst Finals games ever and one of his five best. Let’s talk a stroll down memory lane…

The Clunkers

49. 2011 Game 4 Loss — 8/9/7, 4 TOs, 3/11 shooting, 2/4 FT, 46 min

It’s unfathomable to imagine LeBron having a game like this in the Finals now, but he was pretty bad for almost the entire 2011 Finals and truly miserable here. Eight points is his lowest Finals output ever, so too three field goals, and that was despite playing almost the whole game. James posted an abysmal 75 offensive rating and blew the first Finals series lead of his career, and the Heat didn’t win again.

48. 2007 Game 1 Loss — 14/7/4, 6 TOs, 4/16 shooting

It was a rude welcome for LeBron in his first Finals game ever. He was outscored by Boobie Gibson, and the Cavs scored only 76. Can’t win ’em all.

47. 2011 Game 6 Loss — 21/4/6, 6 TOs, 9/15 shooting, 1/4 FT

A pretty good snapshot of a terrible passive Finals for LeBron. It’s his one miserable performance in a Finals elimination game. It was LeBron’s second fewest free throws made, his second fewest rebounds, and his fourth fewest shot attempts, and the Heat went home embarrassed.

46. 2013 Game 3 Loss — 15/11/5, 2 TOs, 7/21 shooting, 36-point loss

James was a Final-worst minus-32 in this one. He couldn’t make any shots and never attempted a single free throw, the only such Finals game in his career.

45. 2018 Game 4 Loss — 23/7/8, 6 TOs, 5 fouls, 23-point loss

This was the most Finals recent game, and it was not LeBron’s finest (despite having a line most mortals would merely dream of posting in a Finals game). His seven rebounds were his fewest against the Warriors in any Finals game, and his seven field goals were his fourth fewest in the Finals and lowest since 2011. James made only one second-half field goal and was already checked out in the second half. You could hardly blame him.

44. 2016 Game 2 Loss — 19/8/9, 7 TOs, 4 steals, 33-point loss

Eight rebounds is LeBron’s second lowest across against the Warriors, and 19 is his lowest point total. James has posted a whole heap of wild slash lines against Golden State in the Finals. This was not one of them.

43. 2011 Game 3 Win — 17/3/9, 4 TOs, 6/14 shooting

By far the worst win of LeBron’s Finals career, it ended up being the last Heat win of the series. In hindsight, a 17/3/9 line and just a 22% usage rate should’ve been a sign of the troubles to come. LeBron was just plain passive, taking his second fewest shots ever in the Finals and posting his fewest rebounds, and all this coming off the worst Finals game of his career.

Must Be Nice When This Is a Bad Game

42. 2007 Game 2 Loss — 25/7/6, 6 TOs 41. 2007 Game 4 Loss — 24/6/10, 6 TOs, 10/30 shooting, 8/23 twos

Way back a decade ago when James was swept out of his first Finals performance, it wasn’t exactly his fault. He posted great numbers, though very inefficient ones with six turnovers in each game. Still, for a series played at a very slow pace and a 22-year-old with no help, not bad at all. Game 4 was LeBron’s first taste of a Finals elimination game. He couldn’t make a shot to save his life but did all he could anyway, single-handedly willing the Cavs to just a one-point defeat against the Spurs.

40. 2014 Game 3 Loss — 22/5/7, 7 TOs, 5 steals, 5 fouls

One of the worst defensive games of LeBron’s Finals career, he allowed Kawhi Leonard to score 29 points on 10/13 shooting. Kawhi had a 171 offensive rating against James, LeBron was -21, and the blowout had begun.

39. 2017 Game 1 Loss — 28/15/8, 8 TOs, 9/20 shooting, 22-point loss 38. 2016 Game 4 Loss — 25/13/9, 7 TOs, 2 steals, 3 blocks, 46 min

These were the two times we gave up too quickly on LeBron. In 2016 it was when the Cavs went down 3–1, and in 2017 it was after one game when Kevin Durant looked younger, faster, more athletic, and flat out better on both ends of the court. The 15 combined turnovers is pretty rough, but the slash lines are pretty good for games when everyone counted James out.

37. 2014 Game 1 Loss — 25/6/3, 4 TOs, 3 steals

The 2014 Spurs turned James into a scorer only, taking away the dominance we now expect in rebounding and passing. This is the only Finals game of LeBron’s career where his rebound-plus-assist total was single digits — a measly nine combined.

36. 2011 Game 5 Loss — 17/10/10, 4 TOs, 8/19 shooting, 1/2 FT 35. 2011 Game 2 Loss — 20/8/4, 5 TOs, 4 steals, 8/15 shooting

James had a 98 and 99 offensive rating in these two games, yet they were his second and third best of a terrible 2011 Finals for him. The point totals were down and LeBron’s lack of aggressiveness was on full display. This was the worst Finals triple double of LeBron’s career, which is a thing I guess.

34. 2013 Game 2 Win — 17/8/7, 2 TOs, 3 steals, 3 blocks, 7/17 shooting 33. 2012 Game 3 Win — 29/14/3, 4 TOs, 0 steals or blocks

Two of only three wins in the bottom half of LeBron’s Finals performances, it’s no real surprise that a bad James game almost definitely means defeat. Then again, these are career games for 99.9999% of the world in the NBA Finals, but we’ve come to expect more from LeBron James.

32. 2013 Game 5 Loss — 25/6/8, 3 TOs, 8/22 shooting, 4 steals 31. 2015 Game 4 Loss — 20/12/8, 2 TOs, 7/22 shooting 30. 2014 Game 4 Loss — 28/8/2, 3 TOs, 10/17 shooting, 21-point loss 29. 2012 Game 1 Loss — 30/9/4, 4 TOs, 4 steals, 46 min

Nothing too exciting to see here — even LeBron can’t be a god every game. The 2014 Game 4 loss was LeBron’s lowest assist output of his career with just two. He was still very efficient as a scorer but finished the game -21 and just never found the passing lanes against a swarming Spurs team. LeBron had only 20 assists the entire 2014 NBA Finals.

Let the Numbers Roll In…

28. 2015 Game 6 Loss — 32/18/9, 6 TOs, 13/33 shooting

It’s a pretty ugly efficiency line — you won’t find many games LeBron has more shots than points scored, plus six turnovers to boot. But 32/18/9 is still absurd in an elimination game and James just had nothing left after doing everything for five games with Kyrie and Love on the sidelines.

27. 2011 Game 1 Win — 24/9/5, 1 TO 26. 2014 Game 5 Loss — 31/10/5, 1 TO, 10/21 shooting

These games are the bookends on LeBron’s Finals games with the Heat, and they mirror each other pretty nicely. The first was a very ho hum line for James but was his only good line of a series he was pretty bad in (for LeBron, at least). It was one of only two games that series LeBron led the Heat in points and he averaged 18/7/7 in a losing effort. James posted nearly the same line in a losing effort against the Spurs three summers later before bolting for a second stint with the Cavs a few weeks later. These games represent the median performance of LeBron James’s NBA Finals career so far.

25. 2012 Game 2 Win — 32/8/5, 2 TOs, 12/12 FT 24. 2016 Game 1 Loss — 23/12/9, 4 TOs, 9/21 shooting 23. 2013 Game 1 Loss — 18/18/10, 2 TOs, 7/16 shooting 22. 2018 Game 2 Loss — 29/9/13, 5 TOs, 10/20 shooting 21. 2016 Game 3 Win — 32/11/6, 5 TOs, 14/26 shooting, 30-point win 20. 2015 Game 1 Loss — 44/8/6, 4 TOs, 18/38 shooting, 46 min

Ho hum, just LeBron posting lines only LeBron really ever has in Finals games, yet there are 19 others better to come. The 2015 Game 1 loss is LeBron’s highest Finals point total of his career in an overtime loss to the Warriors. Must be nice to score 44 points and it not be a top 15 Finals game you’ve ever played — or even a top three game that series.

19. 2014 Game 2 Win — 35/10/3, 4 TOs, 14/22 shooting

This was the only Heat win in a blowout 2014 Finals loss to the Spurs. James averaged 28/8/4 for the series, pretty good numbers for any mortal but definitely not the Finals LeBron we’ve come to expect since. With hindsight, scoring 35 on 22 shots to win on the road against Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard makes this performance pretty quality.

Finally, the Games You Remember

18. 2013 Game 6 Win — 32/10/11, 6 TO, 3 steals, 11/26 shooting, 50 min

The Ray Allen game. LeBron was not quite as good as you remember — the Heat should’ve lost the Finals at home if not for Ray’s miracle, you know, but it ended up being yet another elimination game triple double.

17. 2007 Game 3 Loss — 25/8/7, 5 TOs, 9/23 shooting

Ah, you forgot there was still one game left from those early 2007 Finals, didn’t you? All we remember now is that LeBron got swept in a boring Finals, but the Cavs actually lost the final two games by just four points combined. This was a team where LeBron’s teammates included, in order of Finals minutes played: Boobie Gibson, Sasha Anderson Varejao, Sasha Pavlovic, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Donyell Marshall. The line here isn’t particularly amazing, nor the five turnovers or the 39% shooting.

But it was a first glimpse at LeBron with his back against the wall and he was spectacular. The 81-possession snail’s pace obscures just how good James was — basically a 34/11/10 at today’s pace. In Cleveland’s first ever home Finals game, a 22-year-old LeBron James was responsible for 58% of the Cavs’ 72 points and nearly stunned the Spurs with Bruce Bowen in Kawhi’s place but all of the other greats in their primes.

16. 2017 Game 4 Win — 31/10/11, 2 TO, 21-point win 15. 2017 Game 2 Loss — 29/11/14, 4 TOs, 12/18 shooting, 20-point loss 14. 2017 Game 3 Loss — 39/11/9, 5 TOs, 15/27 shooting, 46 min 13. 2017 Game 5 Loss — 41/13/8, 19/30 shooting, 46 min, closeout loss

LeBron averaging 34 points, 12 boards, and 10 assists a game in the 2017 Finals, and none of the games are probably even in his top ten Finals performances. Game 4 of course saw the Cavs light the baskets on fire with an NBA record quarter and half, but most of that was Kyrie, Love, and J.R. even though James had a Finals record ninth triple double in the win. Games 2 and 3 were losses but difficult to place solely at LeBron’s feet when he scored 68 points combined on just 45 shots — if anything, maybe relying a little too much on his teammates that just didn’t really show up. Game 5 was the end against a loaded Warriors team, but no thanks to LeBron’s huge line.

12. 2013 Game 4 Win — 33/11/4, 1 TO, 15/25 shooting

Game 4 was the Heat’s only real comfortable win of the Finals against the Spurs despite winning the series, and LeBron had one of his most efficient games ever and his only good shooting game of the series.

11. 2018 Game 3 Loss — 33/10/11, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 4 TOs, 47 min

All anyone will remember about this game is Kevin Durant hitting the dagger three a second straight year, but LeBron played all but 68 seconds and had the tenth triple-double of his illustrious Finals career, carrying a broken roster with a broken hand until the Ws pulled away in the final minutes.

The Top Ten… For Now

10. 2012 Game 4 Win — 26/9/12, 3 TOs, 2 steals

A pretty forgotten game now, this was a win that put James up 3–1 in the Finals for the only time in his career and might have been the one when everything finally clicked. His 12 assists were a career-high with the Heat. We practically expect a triple double every game now against the Warriors, but it’s easy to forget LeBron’s assist numbers weren’t always this high. In 13 Finals game before this one, James averaged just six assists per game. He’s been over eight each game since, and over nine per game if you leave out the blowout 2014 Spurs series. Looking back, this may have been the moment LeBron learned to truly trust his teammates on the biggest stage, one that put him on the brink of his long-awaited first title.

9. 2015 Game 5 Loss — 40/14/11, 2 TOs 8. 2015 Game 3 Win — 40/12/8, 4 TOs, 14/34 shooting, 4 steals, 2 block

It’s easy to forgot now just how magnificent LeBron was in the 2015 defeat against the Warriors when he was a one-man show with both Kyrie and Love sidelined. Game 5 was the highest scoring triple-double in Finals history and ranked as LeBron’s greatest Finals loss ever until this year. Game 3 was a win and marked the only time James has actually led any of these three Finals against the Warriors — and the only one time in NBA history Cleveland has led any NBA Finals. LeBron wasn’t always efficient in these 2015 games, but it’s hard to worry about efficiency when your best alternate scoring options are Timofey Mozgov and Matthew Dellevadova.

7. 2012 Game 5 Win — 26/11/13, 6 TOs, 2 blocks, closeout win

It was LeBron’s first title win, and he did it in style with a triple double at home to knock out Durant and the Thunder. This was the win James had played his entire career for and he finally got it, almost a decade in.

6. 2015 Game 2 Win — 39/16/11, 3 TOs, 11/35 shooting, 14/18 FT, 50 min

At long last, this was both LeBron’s and Cleveland’s first ever Finals win (in six games) and it was magnificent. Cleveland was already missing Love when Kyrie also went down in the heartbreaking overtime Game 1 loss. The Cavs were down to just LeBron and Dellevadova, Tristan, J.R., Shump, and Mozgov. If ever there should’ve been a sweep, or at least a blowout road loss, this was it. Instead LeBron single-handedly dragged the Cavs to overtime again, playing 50 of the 52 minutes, and this time shocked the Warriors with a one-man road win. He was hardly efficient but posted the second highest-scoring triple double in Finals history in probably the greatest solo performance of his career.

5. 2018 Game 1 Loss — 51/8/8, 19/32 shooting, 5 TOs, 48 min (OT)

No one was excited about the 2018 Finals rematch — right up until LeBron played one of the best games of his life to kick things off. It was the highest scoring playoff game of his career, and he did it on the road against one of the most talented teams ever and led Cleveland to the brink of victory. Watching the game, you could tell it was a special performance from James. No one gave the Cavs a chance, but LeBron nearly changed everything. We’ll never know how things might have turned out if George Hill had made his free throw or if J.R. Smith could tell time. Instead, a frustrated James punched a locker room wall and broke his hand, and the sweep was on. It will go down as the greatest Finals loss of his career.

The Four Championship Wins We’ll Never Forget

4. 2016 Game 5 Win — 41/16/7, 2 TOs, 3 steals, 3 blocks, 4 threes 3. 2016 Game 6 Win — 41/8/11, 1 TO, 4 steals, 3 blocks, 16/27 shooting 2. 2016 Game 7 Win — 27/10/11, 5 TOs, 2 steals, 3 blocks, 47 min

Feel free to order them however you like, but the trio together was absolutely magnificent and LeBron needed all three of them to come back from down 3–1 to the 73–9 Warriors to win the title. He averaged 36/11/10/3/3 in that trio of games, which is even more absurd than you remember. LeBron scored 41 points on 30 shots in Game 5, then bested that with 41 on just 27 shots in Game 6. Game 6 is his only Finals game with the Cavs with only one turnover.

And then of course there was Game 7. Statistically, it’s clearly the worst game of the three — heck, statistically, it should’ve fallen out of LeBron’s top 10 Finals game. The 9/24 shooting line was ugly. Still, LeBron played all but one minute and put up a road Game 7 triple double against one of the greatest teams in NBA history, recorded “The Block,” and finally got the win that will define his legacy forever.

1. 2013 Game 7 Win — 37/12/4, 5 threes, 2 TOs, 12/23 shooting, 45 min

This was the game after the game. Ray Allen’s shot saved the Heat and gave LeBron a second chance in Game 7, and boy did he take it. James was magnificent against Kawhi Leonard and a great Spurs defense. He didn’t record many assists but didn’t need to the way he was shooting. LeBron scored 37 points on just 23 shots, recording a 144 offensive rating and a 95 defensive rating. His five threes were his most ever in a Finals game, and he did it all with just two turnovers and played nearly the whole game. The win locked up LeBron’s second consecutive title and was the exclamation point on his Heat resume and on his one truly great team season so far. It was one of the all-time great Game 7 performances.

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