[Highlight] 22 Year Old LeBron James Scores 25 Straight Points On The Road To Close Out Game Five Of The Eastern Conference Finals
Whether or not you think he’s the 🐐. This was a 🐐 performance
Definitely his best performance ever. I still remember this … so many years later.
Nah his best performance is 2012 game 6 ecf
Nah Game 1 2018 Finals. No one has ever dominated that level of competition so single handily
LeBron himself said his peak was 2017-2018, so I’m voting 2018 finals game 1 as well. That 16-18 Warriors team was just unfair, best in history with some margin.
I know it’s just one game but I really wish we saw what happened if they won that one. Probably lose in 5 anyways but you never know.
I think you can chalk up game 2 as an L, but tied 1-1 and heading back to Cleveland is where the imagination can really run wild. It was already a close game and you have to think they try harder if there is a chance to go up on the juggernaut that the Warriors were. Then up 2-1.. oh man who knows.
To me it’s his magnum opus. After losing to Dallas in 2011, he literally got better every single year. 12 better than 11, 13 better than 12, 14 better than 13, etc.
It’s the 2026-27 76ers and it ain’t close, lmao. Joel, MVP. Jaylen Brown, recent Finals MVP, Tyrese Maxey, All-Star the last 3 years. We ALL know what Bron does.
Klay Thompson never a MVP candidate in anything, 22 PPG. Draymond, 14 PPG, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists; Steph an MVP just like Joel was. I don’t get how the Warriors team is better on paper.
yeah man we get it, KD is a moron
How can one human own all of those performances 😭 It’s not fair
You can put the whole 2018 run in there. Regardless of where you have him ranked. If you watched that run and then watched that Game 1 going up against that Golden State team, no other player besides Jordan could have been that consistently dominant and carrying a team like he did.
As a Celtics fan, fuck you man. That performance is etched into my memory and I wish it would go away.
As a Lebron fan, fuck you too, buddy. I’m glad you remember what happened in game 6 AND game 7 of that season.
Completely agree. No other game had as much on the line as that game. The amount of scrutiny he’d get if they’d lost that series, after his worst finals performance of his career.
I remember texting my friend like are you watching this shit¿? One of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen to this day. I think what also makes it so great was he wasn’t the best player yet and this was like a “I’m here and I’m going to be the best”
He kept hitting those threes and I was like. Hold up one minute. This is greatness
It’s subjective, but this game was what made my crew say “That dude’s the best player in the world”
Game 6 against the Celtics had way more weight to it.
Simply from an age perspective and where he was with his game, this game is otherworldly. Jumper was hitting, 3pt shot was hitting, making FTs. He was in a zone this game.
As a Celtics fan, I watched this live from France and it was devastating. Pure dominance.
Lives in my nightmares forever. He ended the pistons man
Was watching this live it was brain breaking
I was not able to watch this live but i was looking at the live play by play on nba.com.. shit was bonkers i thought the website glitched.. it was something like “james jumpshot (2pts)” or a “James layup shot (2pts)” over and over again and it went on like that till the game ended.
We all know is really good but This was the game that made me think he will be one of the greatest players of all time once said and done.
I am almost certain this is my personal most replayed nba game highlight.
There’s no goat, only a goat league and he’s clearly among them
I forget, did MJ ever single-handedly carry a team to the FInals?
No.
haters say he only able to do this because this Pistons were lame. while the core members are still the same and made a 6 straight ECF appearance and 2 consecutive Finals appearance
The kind of athlete you need to be down two late in the game and tie it up on driving dunks twice!
This some 2k mycareer takeover fr.
That stretch where he dribbles by them 5 or 6 times in a row is absurd.
It looks like the defenders aren’t even in the same league.
My 5ft 11 white point guard with rim grazer dunk package was doing this in his sleep in 2k16.
Fucking unreal player. I’m 30. I was NINE when this dude entered the league. 0 legal troubles, a good role model, seemingly a great guy too on top of his legendary career.
He also seems like a great father. Like his father wasn’t involved in his life and he’s freaking playing with his son in the NBA.
That’s one thing that has always stood out to me about Bron. A lot of people who grow up without a father can struggle with breaking that cycle especially in the black community, but not Bron. From what we know he’s been a committed father and family man, which is even more impressive considering the insane amount of money, fame, and attention that has surrounded him for most of his life.
Ant is 22, hitting it raw, and then refusing any responsibility. Bron was a father basically his whole time in the league and now has a son in the league.
Acktuallly you must be 33
This guy maths
And I do not, don’t mind me.
to be fair i am also 30 and i was like “yep, 9. that checks out.”
32*
Yeah likely actually, unless he had a July or August birthday
didn’t lebron’s first year start in 2003?
the prince that was promised
it’s palace time for the prince, tayshaun prince!
Time to rewatch Tayshaun knocking down 5 3s in a row to start the game against UNC at Rupp Arena.
It’s almost unimaginable what some of the defensive sets are looking like against him in this video. Did Wallace foul out? Because I can’t understand not doubling helping on LeBron as a default.
Ben left in free agency the previous year.
Wow, I totally misremember that era then.
I think a lot of people do
In addition to Ben Wallace’s departure the previous offseason, Antonio McDyess was also ejected earlier in the game for a flagrant foul on Anderson Varejao.
That being said, having witnessed that performance, I’m convinced we could have had prime Bill Russell out there and it wouldn’t have made much a difference. LeBron ascended that night and I couldn’t even be mad about it.
Flip Saunders was Detroit’s coach then, wasn’t he?
Flip was among the first coaches in the league to put in elements of zone when that became possible, and he’s trying a variety of stuff here. The Pistons are falling apart because they’re trying stuff out of their usual toolkit under extreme pressure – > because, LeBron James.
Wallace was in Chicago by then.
Where’s Wallace at? Where the fuck is Wallace? Where’s Wallace? Huh?
They promised a prince, and delivered a king.
And Adam Silver is the Night King
LeSan al-Ghaib
don’t even quote this rn after that season finale 😭
Why not? it’s what Clara would’ve wanted
WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE ME DO?!
Edit: Better than season 2, but not season 1. They got 8 more episodes to stick the landing on this whole story. it’s gonna be tough to pull off given all that’s still supposed to happen.
It was so frustrating losing this series when the cavs only had one good player. Lebron was unstoppable.
Pistons lost the ECF for like 3 straight years, crazy to think they couldnt get one more ring being in contention for that long
If only it wasn’t for Big Shot Bob
looking back on it now it was also just a weird roster to put around him.
dallas went to the finals with luka paired with athletic lob-catching centers. lebron had big z and varejao
Lol Maxiell was like wtf is this freak of nature
Not a clutch player btw!
I watched this live and it was amazing.
Now that I’m older, they should have just doubled him to get the ball out of his hands and made… big z? Beat them.
Yea I’m not understanding why the Pistons just let LeBron destroy guys one on one lmao
Watch the vid again. They tried a box and one, blitzing the P&R, going under/over screens, fronting Bron off-ball, etc.
Nothing worked.
LeBron’s primary defender got ejected for fouling Varejao in the first quarter, so they were scrambling a little. That pistons team was also a shadow of the championship team people think of.
Yeah LeBron for sure wouldn’t have done this if the Pistons had Antonio McDyess… come on man
Picking nits but Antonio McDyess was not LeBron’s primary defender. That would be Tayshaun Prince. Antonio was more of a traditional power forward who did not have any bit of a lateral footspeed along the perimeter to handle LeBron (not that anyone handled LeBron, just Antonio would have been a particularly poor choice).
That all being said, would it have been nice to have Antonio McDyess on that back line in the fourth and OT? For sure. Would have been nice to have Ben Wallace in Detroit instead of Chicago, too. Not sure either would have made a difference that night though.
That may be true but they were still the first seed during the 06-07 season.
This talk is reminding me of the Inside the NBA tha aired right after this game. It was one of my favorites ever. Reggie Miller was disagreeing with everyone about doubling LeBron and they had a heated argument about it for at least 15 minutes. They’re finally winding down and reaching some sort of “agree to disagree” status as they’re going to commercial, and Chuck’s closing thoughts on it is to simply say “I hate you Reggie” lmao
Bron had games where he shot 3-11, 5-15, 7-19, 8-19 in the series. It was really just games 3 and 5 that he actually played well. The bigger issue for the Pistons in that series was their offense.
Sometimes when a player is in a zone, there is nothing you can do.
Look at the 3pt shot to tie it. He legit ran past two defenders to the elbow and just rose up and shot it. There is no defense for that. The last play was egregious though. The whole lane was open. His athleticism just made it where he could beat everyone else.
Backing up a step,
All the criticism of LBJ running up to this moment was of the “He doesn’t take the big shot himself” variety.
It’s like the Cavs decided to build a roster that would make him do it! :-D
Not to dock this at all, but yea, one of my main thoughts watching it was realizing how different modern defenses are now.
Amusingly that coach was one of the first to start taking real advantage of the lack of illegal defense rules, and those strategies dominated the league until the 3 point revolution broke defenses using crazy spacing.
The scouting report at the time was to keep him from driving and make him a shooter.
That day some crazy shots were going down. Nothing you can do.
I remember watching this live. I still doubted he’d live up to the hype at this point and this was the game that won me over. It was a literal jaw-dropping performance to watch unfold. Detroit had no answer for James.
Same. I was like 16 or 17. Old enough to have seen MJ play but not old enough to witnesses it through the eyes of someone who understood sports performance at the time because I was like 7.
This was my “oh so this is what a legend looks like” game. I don’t know if I remember it more for the game, or the fact that I got into a fistfight on my friends driveway and 1 am with the cops called the same night.
What was the fight over?
So the reason we were at my friend’s house watching the game is because his parents were away for the week, and someone had been egging his car at night.
We slept over to stay up and listen to if we could hear the culprit coming. Well it actually happened that night and there were like 4 of them and they were all friends with my friends ex who he just dumped.
They actually apologized and started to walk off and then one of the dudes chucked an egg at me and we ended up fighting, just me and the one guy. It stopped after a minute or so and they just walked away. Well turns out the neighbors called the cops and I had a battered face so my friend told me to wait in the bathroom while he talked the cops away and said there was a fight but everyone left.
Man, you’re a real one. He must have a been a good friend of yours for you to do that for him. You ever end up running into those guys again or was that pretty much the rbd of it?
So the story is they ended up feeling bad for it all including the guy I fought and reached out to us to invite us somewhere to drink beers in some kids backyard patio. But I was super sketched and thought it was a setup, but my friends still went and they legit just drank and shot the shit. I never spoke to the eggers again though and I’m not sure my friends ever hung out with them again either.
Apparently I’m lucky I fought the one I fought, because one of the other kids ended up becoming a pro mma fighter. The one I fought owns an HVAC business now.
You definitely made the right call given everything that transpired. I appreciate you sharing that story with me, thank you.
This game made me a believer.
The Pistons were a top tier defensive team, have held top Eastern conference teams to 60 points in playoffs in that era.
Yet in this game they were completely helpless. Everyone knew where the ball was going and who was going to shoot it but they couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
On the flip side, I’d always kind of thought he’d be the one (not the toughest prediction to make, I know) but that game still left me in disbelief. Never has a game-winning shot ever been such a foregone conclusion.
same same.
I’m not good with memories, but I have where I was and how i felt burned into my mind.
I’ve watched since 1990, and it was the most straight up unstoppable I’ve ever seen a player.
Same, he was obviously a very good player before this but watching him dismantle that Detriot team at 22 was unbelievable.
No one ever really had an answer for James except the 2011 Mavs.
I remember watching this in the dorms. This was one of those sports moments where we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. It didn’t matter what Detroit tried to do to stop him. He scored anyway. Like it was inevitable.
In the dorms?? Wasn’t school over by then. This would’ve been late May
Depends. When I stayed in the on campus apartments I signed up in same room and stayed over the summer. I remember watching the Cavs win all alone in the summer of 2016.
Probably quarter system
Thinking back, I don’t remember exactly. Maybe I just watched it with my college friends so I thought it was in the dorms. That was a long time ago. 😆
I watched this game on my couch with my little puppy. That puppy had a long life and finally went to a farm up north with all the other old dogs. Then I got another puppy who had a long wonderful life, and also went up north to a farm with all the other older dogs. Now I have a third little puppy, and LeBron is starting the season as a 76er.
Thats actually insane.
We should start measuring animal lifespans in LeBrons.
LeBron played his first NBA game about eight months before my wife and I married. We celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary a couple months ago, and this fucker is still playing ball, lol.
What kind of dogs are you buying smh
Plenty of large dog breeds only live to 10ish years.
Eric snow. Pavlovixh, donyell Marshall lol, big z
If that isn’t just the shittiest suppprting cast of all time I don’t know what is
Seriously. I knew that team was bad at the time but it really sets in watching this that he was mostly out there with Pavlovic, Ilgauskus, and Valejao plus a rotation of Snow, Damon Jones, and Boobie Gibson.
To think that he actually stood a chance in the Finals. I hate that his fist Finals loss what with that team. He stood no chance of winning.
Yeah those teams are so ass lol
This has to be his magnum opus in terms of single game performances. It was before he hit his peak AND it was to extinguish the last vestiges of the empire they’d rebuilt from ashes down in Detroit.
This entire playoff run was almost certainly why Panathinaikos offered him that godly contract in the 07 offseason. Remember that? 10 years, 500 mill?
AND it was to extinguish the last vestiges of the empire they’d rebuilt from ashes down in Detroit
To be fair, Detroit was right back in the ECF the following May and probably would have had another run at a ring had it not been for the emergence of the KG-Pierce-Allen contingent in Boston.
That being said, that still takes nothing away from LeBron the year prior in what remains the greatest single game performance I’ve ever seen live.
I get my years mixed up. When did you guys trade Chauncey for AI? That’s when the front office jumped the shark and closed the window, I think.
People don’t remember this, but prior to this performance, there were a lot of questions about whether Bron was on the downturn of his very quick “peak”, like imagine Ja Morant’s ascendance to what seemed like assured superstardom to what he is now. Check out his numbers in the regular season this year: all his stats dropped (from 31/7/7 to something like 27/7/6), and I remember one particular Bill Simmons column speculating whether all the hype got into LeBron’s head, and if he’s ever gonna figure it out as an actual superstar.
Then this game happened, and he took the Cavs to the Finals in a team where Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Eric Snow and Sasha Pavlovic all played major rotation minutes. All questions about whether he was “the real deal” disappeared, and his underperformance that year in the regular season is barely even remembered.
TBH, this proved he was for real, but I still don’t think he truly figured it out until after 2011.
Oh for sure. This game was just his “coming out party”, but he didn’t figure out winning until after 2011 ofc.
All you nephews have homework today. Go on YouTube and search “Brian Scalabrine.” I know the video quality might not be what you’re used to, but just try watching. I guarantee you will learn some very important things.
I was told he could not shoot jumpers and is not clutch
Hah, yea. H e had a spotty jumper back then but this performance was truly a glimpse of young bron athleticism + his 2013-2018 jumpshot bag. And it turns out that is just as unstoppable as we always thought it would be.
That was one of the wildest things about that performance at the time. I was fond of LeBron then but could also acknowledge his J was a bit rickety and inconsistent at the time. But that’s why it was so crazy to watch him hitting all these escape dribble fadeaway threes and long-twos over double teams that night. It was like he’d ascended right there on the spot.
MJ couldn’t carry this bag of potatoes to the Finals like Bron did.
He’ll get a 60 point game and get swept
What was that hair by Drew Gooden??
The inverted Ronaldo.
But could he perform in a different era?
Still one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen. This shit was unreal to watch.
And this is what made me a fan. I was a pistons fan my whole life. Still am of course. But I was 12 and was blown away, id never seen a player do something to this level.
Honestly I couldn’t even be mad at his performance that night. It was just that good.
I worked overtime that night and was pissed I didn’t get to watch the whole game. But I’ll never forget the fourth quarter and overtime. For me this is up there with Boston game 6 with Miami.
Insane performance
Watched this live and this is when I realized he’s the best player of our generation. This was insane in real time because you had a feeling LeBron who even then was known for facilitating was going to take it and there wasn’t shit the best defensive team of that era could do.
Greatest game I’ve ever watched. That shit was insane.
He always looked like he was playing against babies
This guy is pretty good. I think he’s got a bright career ahead of him.
Against one of the best defenses ever
Not the 07 pistons with no Ben Wallace.
LeBron turned Quicken Loans into a MyCareer park run. Pistons played perfect defense on everyone except the dude with the ball.
I was having a good day…
I was a Lebron skeptic until this game. This was absolutely unbelievable watching it live. I was losing my mind.
Big LeBron fan but i always forget this was the pistons team after ben wallace went to the bulls
Watching this dude dominate at such a young age was what made him so interesting. I’m so used to seeing him do amazing shit, I tend to forget how great he was before he could take a drink
Blows my mind everytime I watch this.
I remember watching it, bron was in a zone, scoring on everyone.
I’ll never forget this one, was standing up in my living room near the end.
People still said for years that he didn’t have the “killer instinct” or a jumper after this game
This is the moment I’m going to talk to my kids about when I’m old. I was 16 and I remember watching this in the living room of the home I grew up in just in awe of him.
Iirc this was the last real run of that Pistons team. They fell apart after this
They made one more conference finals in 08 and didn’t make it out the first round again until this year with only 4 first round exits in between
Tayshaun Prince: LeBron is easier to guard, you just gotta get through a hundred PnR screens
This is when I knew we didn’t just have an all star player we had an all time great player
clearly not clutch
This game made me an nba fan instead of just a wolves fan
This broke that Pistons team from ever thinking they could get past LeBron
I can’t wait for him to get old soon, I can’t take 20 more years of this fuckery.
Bron been him since young
watching this live was like watching Toguro vs Yusuke, everyone was just locked in.
Remember watching this live, trust me, you cant imagine how improbably he owned this gritty vet team
1 of my favourite games from 🐐
“Lebron won’t servive 90s” Dropped this against an all defense team in 00s, an era pace is all time low and better D than 90s
Every time I see this, it is both awe-inspiring and terrifying. Disregard my flare.
I was at this game, Chauncey missed a buzzer beater at the end of regulation. I smashed my thundersticks hard enough together that i popped them
One of the best performances I’ve ever watched live. Literally unstoppable. Miss the pre-decision LeBron.
It wasn’t just the greatest individual postseason performance ever, it was a very tight up and down game. I was clinging to my seat. LeBron would score then one of the five Pistons would take turns scoring. This was the first time I ever rooted for LeBron because it was literally him versus an entire team that had won a championship two years prior. He was a severe underdog and no, his teammates did absolutely nothing. Was garbage from the 4th quarter into the two overtimes.
It’s insane that he took this group of absolute bums to the nba finals. Absolute 🐐
Boy was that a fun time. To miss a Cavs game was a big deal.
I forgot Chris Webber was on the Pistons
I think he forgot too
Brunson-esque (/s)
Such a shame father time is undefeated.
He was unstoppable back then, single handedly carrying the cavs for years.
So glad he played in the HD era.
Mike Brown kissing Lebron is hilarious
22 year old
No this is AI, it never happened.
Lebrons is not my favorite player. But people who try to say he’s not an All-Time great are idiots. It’s one thing to say he’s not your favorite but to act like it’s because he sucks. Come on. Get out of here.
22 years old and does this. Like….. That’s GOAT shit. This is supposed to be the best defense to exist. Then he does this. Just says switch the screens, apply pressure, play tough, but guess what. I’m just to good.
It’s insane. Lebrons insane.
Words still can’t describe the carry job LeBron did in his first Cleveland stint
LeBron is the perfect example of ballhandler vs dribbler. He has a limited bag, but he gets to the rim or makes a play, or gets the ball up the floor without turning it over.
That’s actually embarrassing defense by DET on that last possession
Stupid thing to be nostalgic for, but hot damn look at that scorebug
Ok, but what is up with Drew Gooden’s hair?! At 2:08
Other than game 7 of 2016 finals, this was my most memorable game watching as a Cavs fan
James was piercing through that Pistons defense like nothing.
The most respectable era of lebron
what makes this more impressive he scored the last 29 of 30 points for the Cavs
Not ClUtCh
Wtf is up with Drew Gooden’s hair
Jordanesque 👑
Went to my dude’s new house he just moved into to smoke a jay, he randomly put this game on and we had the best time watching LeBron do his thing. Very cool memory.
Followed it up with a legendary game 6 too!
Jordan could never because his bald ass would lose in the first round.
My favorite version of LeBron.
Tayshaun Prince was one of the better defenders of his generation and LeBron made him look like a child
Jesus Christ drew gooden looks ridiculous
I feel bad for anyone that didnt get to experience this in real time…..incredible
Fuck man, now it got me thinking the short time left for LeBron. It’s really been an era