When LeBron James plays poorly in a playoff game it feels like a cruel April Fools joke.
In honor of April 1, otherwise known as the day that I would tell my mom she had a spider on her head every year until I was 10, I decided to go back through the record books and look at the LeBron James playoff performances that are so bad that you would think it is some kind of cruel joke.
Luckily (spoiler alert) there is not a single bad game for LeBron James as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers! His 10-point performance in Game 2 of the NBA Playoffs against the Portland Trail Blazers last season stands out and is the sixth-worst playoff game of his career in terms of Basketball-Reference’s game score.
However, the Lakers won that game by 23 points, making it the only game in his bottom 10 in game score to be a victory. It cannot be included on the list.
The worst playoff games in LeBron James’ career:
5. LeBron James only scores 11 in Game 3 of the 2017 Eastern Conference Finals
The 2017 Eastern Conference Finals was decided in a nice, old-fashioned gentleman’s sweep as the Cleveland Cavaliers took care of the Boston Celtics in five games. This was the Isaiah Thomas-led Celtics and the Cavaliers were very obviously the better basketball team.
However, when the Celtics did get the best of the Cavaliers they truly did get the best of them. Boston won Game 3 by three points and the talent disparity was so large that it took LeBron James having one of the worst playoff games of his career for Boston to win on an Avery Bradley buzzer-beater.
LeBron scored 11 points on 4-13 shooting (0-4 from three) with six assists, six rebounds and six turnovers.