LeBron James’ First-Round Dominance
LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers recently finished off their first-round sweep of the Indiana Pacers, which comes as no surprise to fans who have watched James since his playoff debut 11 years ago.
LeBron James will inevitably go down as one of the greatest basketball players who ever lived and a large reason for that is — unlike some of his superstar peers — James has absolutely dominated his opponents in the first round.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Miami Heat have yet to lose a first-round series while LeBron James was wearing their respective team jersey.
As a matter of fact, James only lost two games in four first-round series as a member of the Miami Heat, with Miami going 16-2 in that round.
Even as member of the Cavaliers, James has lost only five of 37 first-round games.
Related Story: Cleveland Cavaliers--25 Best Players
I’m not that great at math anymore, but winning 48 out of 55 possible first-round games seems like an incredibly efficient way to start a run towards the NBA Finals.
And the stats back it up, LeBron has been more than efficient in the first round, even during his first few early trips to the playoffs — something Washington Wizards fans are trying their best to forget.
In LeBron’s first three trips to the playoffs, the Cavaliers met the Wizards all three times in the first round — winning all three series — taking 12 out of the possible 16 games.
Once again, my math is disgustingly rusty, but by my calculations, that means LeBron and the Cavaliers have only lost one (!) game in the first round that wasn’t played against the Wizards.
And even then, the Chicago Bulls team that did manage to win only did so by a score of 108-106 back in 2008.
But back to the Wizards and their mid-2000s misery, when the Cavaliers and Wizards were still considered rivals despite the glaring one-sidedness by the Cavaliers.
LeBron’s first three first round matchups (2006-08) all came against the Washington Wizards and their own superstar, Gilbert Arenas — although he was injured for a majority of the 2007-08 season and clearly wasn’t himself for that first-round matchup against the Cavaliers.
LeBron recorded averages of 31.1 points, 8.5 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 1.5 steals per game in those three Washington series, including a 30-point triple-double in his first-ever playoff game.
He also recorded a triple-double in the last first-round game he would play against the Wizards in 2008.
Live Feed
FanSided
Something I should point out; whenever I reference “LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers,” I really mean “LeBron James and his D-League associates.”
LeBron was never given a “Big 3” when he first played in Cleveland, he never even got close to a “Big 2”. If the Cavs wanted to win, LeBron had to want it more than everyone else on the court and he almost always did.
Just to give you an idea of the talent level that surrounded James at this time in his career:
- Daniel Gibson was undoubtedly their best three-point threat.
- Larry Hughes was the team’s “second option.”
- Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao were the defensive anchors.
- Eric Snow played more minutes than he ever should have.
- The ghost of Ben Wallace was about as effective on the court as an actual ghost.
We really don’t even need to go into the Delonte West-LeBron’s mother saga of 2010.
To sum it up, the team was a mess, but LeBron overcame its deficiencies.
LeBron’s domination early in the first round wasn’t a collective effort, it was LeBron doing everything in his will to ensure a victory for his team.
Moving on from the poor Washington Wizards, LeBron would go on to win two more first-round playoff matchups during his first run as a Cavalier, sweeping the 2009 Detroit Pistons and taking out the 2010 Chicago Bulls in five games.
LeBron would finally get more help in these two seasons, although it was nothing in comparison to what he has now.
He is the reason Mo Williams — who had no business ever being considered an All-Star — made an All-Star team.
Live Feed
Hardwood Houdini
Antawn Jamison was brought in midway through the 2009-10 season to “aid” LeBron in his attempt to win an NBA Finals, along with another relic of the unstoppable force he used to be, Shaquille O’Neal.
The slight upgrade in the roster would not be enough for LeBron to reach the Finals and it wouldn’t even be enough to keep him in the city of Cleveland, but despite that, he still averaged 31.9 points, 10.3 rebounds, 7.9 assists, and 1.4 steals in those nine first-round games in 2009-10.
LeBron also shot 53.7 percent from the field and 35.9 percent from three, higher than his regular-season averages throughout his first seven seasons as an NBA player.
After leaving Cleveland for South Beach, his reign of terror on the first-round continued, this time more egregious than before.
In his four years in Miami, playing on a true superteam with Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, the only statistic LeBron saw a significant drop in was his scoring.
From 2010-14, LeBron averaged 26.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, 6.2 assists, and 1.6 steals per game in first-round series while shooting 53.3 percent from the field — including 62.7 percent in 2012-13 that made even the largest 7-footers envious.
The Heat only dropped two games in the first round throughout those four years, losing one game to the Philadelphia 76ers in 2011 and then another one against the New York Knicks a year later.
The Heat swept the Milwaukee Bucks and Charlotte Hornets in back-to-back seasons as LeBron paved the road to reach his third and fourth consecutive NBA Finals appearance.
The games were never close either, as the Heat won their first-round games by an average of 11.2 points per game, including a 33-point blowout of the Knicks in Game 1 of 2012.
Granted, they were the No. 2 seed for three of those series and the No. 1 seed for the other, so the competition was lackluster, but the consistency is what is impressive.
Cleveland Cavaliers
After LeBron made the decision to return home to Ohio and suit up for the wine and gold once again, his stranglehold on the first round did not change, as Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love joined in on LeBron’s dominance.
LeBron averaged 27.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 7.4 assists, and 2.4 steals per game on 49.9 percent shooting during first round matchups from 2014-17.
Going up against the Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers respectively in his first three seasons back in Cleveland, LeBron has yet to drop a game, sweeping all three teams, although with not as much ease as previous first rounds.
The Cavaliers won those 12 games by an average of 7.3 points per game and the series with the Pacers was one of the closest sweeps the NBA has ever seen.
Per the Elias Sports Bureau and Bleacher Report, the Cavaliers 16-point differential against the Indiana Pacers of this season’s first-round matchup is now tied for the lowest margin ever in a sweep.
The Golden State Warriors did the same back in 1975 against the Washington Bullets; however, that series was happened to be the NBA Finals.
Despite the low point differential, LeBron had best first-round series of his career — at age 32, mind you — against the Pacers, as he averaged 32.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, 9.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game on 54.3 percent shooting from the field and 45.0 percent from three.
Going into the series, the questions of whether or not the Cavaliers could pull it together on defense were still being highly debated, as the lack of effort on defense was noticeable and frustrating.
More from Hoops Habit
- The 5 most dominant NBA players who never won a championship
- 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
- Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
But defense didn’t need to win this series; LeBron did it all by himself.
The infamous switch was never officially flipped by the team, but LeBron has his own personal switch that he can flip whenever he wants to and that is exactly what he did against the Pacers.
Whenever he wanted to beat the Pacers, there wasn’t anything anyone on the court could do to stop it.
Being down 25 on the road at halftime of Game 3 made the team appear more vulnerable than fans are used to, but LeBron quickly reassured his greatness and showed fans there was nothing to worry about.
LeBron scored 28 of his 41 in the second half as he led the Cavaliers to the largest comeback in NBA playoff history, cementing his identity as the first-round killer.
He also recorded 13 rebounds and 12 assists, his fourth career first-round triple-double.
LeBron has now won 21 straight games in the first round going back to 2012, the first individual player since 1984 to do so.
LeBron’s career averages in the first round are 29.3 points, 9.1 rebounds, 7.1 assists, and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 51.1 percent from the field and 31.7 percent from three to go along with a 48-7 record.
LeBron doesn’t take the first round off, he uses it as a high energy warmup so when the real playoffs begin, he’s already locked in; ready to destroy the next team that dares to try and block his path.
Next: 50 Greatest Players of the 1990s
The first round may just be a stepping stone towards the ultimate goal both personally and for the team, but LeBron has never once missed that step.