Is LeBron off to the best start to a finals for any player ever?

[Everlong]

LeBron's first two games in the finals:

GAME ONE: 44 pts, 8 rebounds, 6 assists
GAME TWO: 39 pts, 16 rebounds, 11 assists

Have we ever seen someone get off to this dominating of a start in the NBA Finals before? Dude is absolutely lighting it up and basically carrying a Cavs team missing its second and third most important players for the rest of the way.

[Circled Square]

I seriously think he could pull a Jerry West and win the finals MVP in a losing effort.

[The Legend]

The closest I can remember to come up with was Jordan's 93 finals against the Phoenix Suns. that year he averaged 41 points for the series and started the series with games of 31-7-5 and 42-12-9 and shot 50% from the field and 67% from 3-point range - two things LeBron isn't really even close to at this point.

Through two games Jordan had 73 points, 19 rebounds and 14 assists. LeBron through two games has 83, 24 and 17. Jordan's games came in two wins though which probably tilts things in his favor. The rest of the series Jordan had 44-9-6 / 55-8-4 / 41-7-7 / 33-8-7.

It's worth noting that in only Game 3 did Jordan shoot under 50% from the field.

[The Legend]

I seriously think he could pull a Jerry West and win the finals MVP in a losing effort.

Depends on what Klay Thompson does the rest of this series, and if they actually lose the series.

[Circled Square]

Nah, this reminds me of Jordan vs. the Celtics. Tristian Thompson is his Charles Oakley.

[Str8Shooter]

Lebron is a beast, but he shot 11/35 from the field in Game 2. That's terrible and if they had lost people would be saying he took too many bad shots and didn't trust his teammates.

It's incredible what wins versus losses does to the narrative of a series.

[Hanley!]

Lebron is a beast, but he shot 11/35 from the field in Game 2. That's terrible and if they had lost people would be saying he took too many bad shots and didn't trust his teammates.

It's incredible what wins versus losses does to the narrative of a series.

You can manipulate statistics to make just about any argument you want. But given points scored are the only stats that count when it comes to deciding the winner of the game, surely that's where most of the focus should go. Based on that, it seems like an impressive performance.

I know fuck all about basketball, mind you, the title of the thread just caught me.

[The Legend]

Lebron is a beast, but he shot 11/35 from the field in Game 2. That's terrible and if they had lost people would be saying he took too many bad shots and didn't trust his teammates.

It's incredible what wins versus losses does to the narrative of a series.

You can manipulate statistics to make just about any argument you want. But given points scored are the only stats that count when it comes to deciding the winner of the game, surely that's where most of the focus should go. Based on that, it seems like an impressive performance.

I know fuck all about basketball, mind you, the title of the thread just caught me.

Efficiency matters a lot, or at least it should. Typically, if you are only making one-third of your shots, that's giving the other team a lot of possessions to score a lot more points quickly while you are still struggling. Luckily for LeBron, his teammates rebounding and defense mitigated that factor. A guy that scores 30 points on 50% shooting while having 15 assists is helping his team score 60-75 points. Where a guy that scores 40 and has 3 assists is hleping his team score 46-49 points.

[Everlong]

Lebron is a beast, but he shot 11/35 from the field in Game 2. That's terrible and if they had lost people would be saying he took too many bad shots and didn't trust his teammates.

It's incredible what wins versus losses does to the narrative of a series.

Context matters a lot here though. LeBron is playing with house money right now, the injuries have put him in a situation where he HAS to be taking all of these shots and doing more with the basketball. People wouldn't be saying LeBron took too many bad shots or was too untrusting in the context of what he has to deal with right now.

He might not be getting optimal efficiency out of his shots, but there's no question he's completely taken over games. His teammates have been able to step up in other ways, especially this last game on defense. But LeBron is still the one who's got primary responsibility for putting up points AND distributing the ball now that Kyrie's out, and he's doing both incredibly well.

Also @Hanley! in a basketball thread? I've seen it all

[Str8Shooter]

Like I said, Lebron is a beast, and he's been carrying the team on his back as he has to now. But that was a pretty woeful shooting night from him, especially when he's usually very efficient in his scoring. Curry was terrible shooting last night too, he's an amazing player, and he got a lot of heat for his forcing up shots last night too.

[Everlong]

40-12-8 tonight. Most points ever scored by a player in the first three games of the finals.

Fucking insane.

[War Daddy]

40-12-8 tonight. Most points ever scored by a player in the first three games of the finals.

Fucking insane.

Michael Jordan? Never heard of her.

[The Legend]

40-12-8 tonight. Most points ever scored by a player in the first three games of the finals.

Fucking insane.

He'll need 50 points on Thursday to top Jordan's record through four games of NBA Finals.

[MotorCitySaint]

40-12-8 tonight. Most points ever scored by a player in the first three games of the finals.

Fucking insane.

He'll need 50 points on Thursday to top Jordan's record through four games of NBA Finals.

At this point I wouldn't put it past him. He's so damn good.

[DanielsonTHAGOAT]

If LeBron wins this series, he is up there with Jordan. Easily. LeBron and Delly winning this series would arguably be the greatest upset in the history of basketball. It'll even be more impressive since it's a 7 game series as well.

[Messiah]

If LeBron wins this series, he is up there with Jordan. Easily. LeBron and Delly winning this series would arguably be the greatest upset in the history of basketball. It'll even be more impressive since it's a 7 game series as well.

As much as I want to agree with you, it is just too hard for me to consider a team with LeBron James winning a championship an upset.

[The Legend]

If LeBron wins this series, he is up there with Jordan. Easily. LeBron and Delly winning this series would arguably be the greatest upset in the history of basketball. It'll even be more impressive since it's a 7 game series as well.

As much as I want to agree with you, it is just too hard for me to consider a team with LeBron James winning a championship an upset.

I agree more with Messiah and it's more than just LeBron. I mean if you look at the starting five, Cleveland has three starters that I would rather have than Golden State's respective starters in James over Barnes, Thompson over Green and Mozgov over Bogut.

[DanielsonTHAGOAT]

If LeBron wins this series, he is up there with Jordan. Easily. LeBron and Delly winning this series would arguably be the greatest upset in the history of basketball. It'll even be more impressive since it's a 7 game series as well.

As much as I want to agree with you, it is just too hard for me to consider a team with LeBron James winning a championship an upset.

Kyrie is injured. Love is injured. Their starting center is injured. Golden State are one of the best teams offensively and defensively of the past 15-20 years according to statistics. Golden State has a 13 man roster that they've been utilizing while the Cavs have only 7 players. LeBron is clocking in over 40 minutes every game. The fact that the Cavs even won 2 games is a miracle. Basketball is a team sport, not an individual one.

Jordan had Pippen, Rodman and Grant. Kobe had Shaq and Pau. LeBron has Timothy fucking Mozgov as his 2nd best player.

[The Legend]

No.