LeBron James' 2009 playoff run is still sitting in rare air.
A Reddit thread resurfaced one of the cleaner ways to frame that Cleveland postseason: James averaged 47.5 points per 100 possessions across 14 playoff games. Basketball-Reference's 2009 playoff leaders list still has him at the top in that category.
The normal box-score version is already heavy. James averaged 35.3 points, 9.1 rebounds and 7.3 assists while carrying the Cavaliers to the Eastern Conference finals at age 24. Cleveland lost to Dwight Howard's Orlando Magic in six games, which is why the run often gets pushed behind title-winning postseason stretches.
That is the tension around it. The production was outrageous, but the ending was not clean enough for the wider historical memory. The Lakers-Magic Finals also erased the Kobe-LeBron matchup that the league and fans had been waiting on all spring.
The possession number keeps the run from fading. Even in a higher-scoring modern league, 47.5 points per 100 possessions over three playoff rounds is not just a hot series. It is a full postseason sample of one player bending an offense almost by himself.
No comments yet. Start the conversation.