10 years later, how do you evaluate LeBron's 2013 Playoffs?

[homecourtloss]

It's a somewhat disappointing run offensively. If Allen didn't hit that 3pt shot Lebron would have had another horrible subpar finals in his peak years. The way it turned out, he had a great Game 7 and the rest is history but all in all it's not a GOAT-level run at all. He was going through the motions and struggling shooting the ball through much of that finals series and worse yet looked passive at times.

Not with an injured, subpar, non-shooting Wade off the court.

[ronnymac2]

Game 1 in 2013 is also underrated. If Bosh hits that jumper,everybody is looking at LBJ's 18/18/11 statline as being the perfect illustration of how LeBron can affect the game at an elite level in so many ways, even against the Spurs. Instead, it's looked at as an 18/18/10 statline that makes you question why LBJ couldn't score more points.

I think James had a great first two games of that 2013 Finals, and a great last two games, too. Played well in Game 4 (Wade was the man in that game). GM 3 he struggled mightily. Don't remember game 5 much. It's one of the more underrated Finals in recent memory.

I recently learned that this forum has a working Search function and found this post from 2016. I think I still agree. Maybe Game 6 wasn't great though. Maybe a great end by LBJ.

His foul draw vs. Chicago was insane. Everything vs. Indy was all-time great. Shooting and foul draw vs. SAS went down, but he made up for it with TOV% and oREB%.

2013 is LBJ's peak year. It's the year you take when you want to contend with the Dreams, Diesels, and Airs in best peak comparisons. LBJ shot 40 percent from 3, finished like Shaq at the rim, could manage a game like '06 Billups, and provided all-time great defense at SF/PF. Super-charged motor. He's basically the perfect player. Remember, this was back when defense was still allowed to be played and teams didn't fill their rosters with interchangeable mediocrities whose sole job was to chuck 25-footers.

Lebron retains his rather large defensive advantage over diesel or air in pretty much any of his best years as well as a number of offensive advantages ontop of just being outright more valuable statistically and all of that came against a more talented field. The "this is Lebron's peak" is typically just an excuse to scale-down the stuff people don't feel comfortable making an argument against.

Diesel especially is just riding on rep when people try and put him in these conversations. Air has the box-score and team-level domination and Dream has playoff-elevation. There is no real argument for 2000 as even the best year of the decade beyond vibes. People talk about Duncan and KG switching places, but it should really be KG vs Shaq. Duncan elevated when it mattered, Shaq at best mantained(with his defense probably dropping off).

I have not observed that RE: using "this is Lebron's peak" to ignore other good things/seasons/advantages of LBJ, but that phenomena does exist in debate, so I will take your word for it that you've observed it.

RE: Shaq - I disagree about 2000 having no real argument for best of the decade or Shaq at best maintaining his level of play in the playoffs, but that's neither here nor there in a thread about '13 LBJ, so I'll leave it at that.