Lebron James’ record and stats in the play-in tournament

The NBA play-in tournament started in 2019 at the Disney bubble to make the season finish more interesting because of the COVID pandemic and the reduced number of games - and it worked!

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Since then, LeBron has missed the playoffs and the play-in once, last year when the Lakers finished as the 11th seed—marking the first time in LeBron James’ career that he didn’t make the playoffs or the play-in. But we do remember his court performance in the 2021 play-in tournament, in the game against the Warriors.

Lebron James’ play-in tournament stats

2021 was the first season to use the Page–McIntyre system. Teams finishing in positions 7 through 10 in each conference qualified for play-in games to determine the final two playoff seeds for each conference.

In that memorable game played in front of reduced visitors at Staples Center and facing the biggest Conference and State adversary, the Golden State Warriors, the Lakers defeated the Warriors 103-100. LeBron James recorded a triple-double with 22 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists for the Lakers, including the go-ahead 3pt FG with 58.2 seconds remaining in regulation. In comparison, Anthony Davis added 25 points (20 in the 2nd half) and 12 rebounds in the victory.

To his stats, we have to add his comments just before the play-in tournament game, when he addressed the people behind the idea:

Although a year before this, when his Lakers were not in a playoff struggle, he had an entirely different sentiment towards the opening post-season tournament.

As well as Lebron James’ play-in tournament appearance, on the losing Golden State Warriors team was the best player, Stephen Curry, who led the scorers with 37 points and seven rebounds. Steph and the rest of the ‘Dub Nation’ used this defeat to fuel the following season’s campaign, when they became champions for the fourth time in the last 15 years.