Cavs: KJG roundtable on best moments, favorite players of the 2010’s

#2: What’s your favorite LeBron game of his return?

DiPaola:

Well, I hate to be THAT GUY, but I cannot simply pick one game. Instead, I will choose Game 5 and 6 of the 2016 Finals. In Game 5, the Warriors were already planning their championship parade, but James had other plans.

He would drop a ridiculous statline of 41 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists, three steals, three blocks, and shoot 53.3% from the floor, as noted by Basketball Reference. And as only James could, he followed that up with 41 points, 11 assists, eight rebounds, four steals, three blocks, and shot 59.3% from the floor in front of a raucous home crowd.

What sticks out to me is James’ sheer determination not to let his team go down on the game’s biggest stage.

Cornell:

There were obviously so many amazing games, but one I look back on is in February of 2017, when LeBron had 32 points, 17 assists, seven rebounds, two steals and two blocks, as noted by Basketball Reference, and had a game-tying shot off the window to stun the Washington Wizards.

The Cavs would go on to win in overtime, and it was just an unbelievable performance yet again by the King that always sticks out to me.

Marling:

The Game 2 of the 2018 East Semifinals against the Toronto Raptors where LeBron continued to make fall away 18-footers. That had to be so disheartening to Toronto.

He had 43 points in that one, on an outstanding 19-of-28 shooting, and also had 14 assists and eight rebounds, as shown by ESPN.

Meitin:

I have a lot of favorite LeBron games during his entire tenure with Cleveland. Since his return, he, in my eyes, cemented himself as basketball’s greatest player.

There were many games in that time that established that very sentiment but none more-so than in arguably the most controversial and worst loss in recent Cleveland sports memory. I am speaking of Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals, where it was a game where he was the only player to score 50-plus points in a Finals game in a loss, according to ESPN Stats & Info, and it was just the sixth 50-point game in Finals history, also as noted by ESPN Stats & Info.

Many things led to the loss that was to come, but it was LeBron at his absolute most dominant in my eyes and I will never forget it, either. The game’s result is clearly something that I don’t find favorable as a Cavaliers fan, but it’s genuinely impossible for me as a basketball fan not to sit back and admire just how utterly great LeBron was in that unfortunate loss.

Casey:

In terms of the regular season in LeBron’s Return years, I’d say the game against the San Antonio Spurs when Kyrie had 57 points in March of 2015. In that one, he hit seven-of-seven from three-point range, as noted by Basketball Reference, and that was the first year everyone was coming together, really.

The Spurs at that point were the defending champs and were still one of the favorites to come out out of the Western Conference, and that was a signature win at the time for the Cavs.