Kevin Durant turned in a legacy defining performance last night, Shannon Sharpe believes it still doesn’t hold water to LeBron’s performances in the past.
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In case you missed it, Durant finished game 5 with a 49 point triple double while playing every single second of the game. There was simply nothing anyone could do to stop his dominance. It was completely unheralded, on a night when Kyrie Irving sat out with an injury and Harden played a decoy role with his sore hamstring.
49/17/10 hits different when it’s on pure skill and #MainlyJumpers 🔥 This right here is when you really celebrate efficiency. He was 70% on all skill.
One of the greatest performances of all-time. Thank you, Kevin Durant! pic.twitter.com/quMJODdFeL
— Ball Don’t Stop (@balldontstop) June 16, 2021
Shannon Sharpe Argues LeBron James Turned In More Impressive Series Long Performances Than Kevin Durant
While Durant’s single game performance was legendary and historic in every right, Shannon Sharpe believes that LeBron James has KD beat when it comes to all-time performances:
KD was spectacular last nite, but we’ve seen Bron avg trip dub for entire finals, lead both tms in pts, rebs, assist, steals and blocks in the finals. It was 1 gm, a gr8 gm, but 1 gm https://t.co/nXls3U9iYU
— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) June 16, 2021
Shannon Sharpe may have a point here. LeBron has averaged a triple doubles in a playoffs series twice before. The first time was against Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors in 2017. In that series, James averaged 33.6 points per game, 12 rebounds per game, and 10 assists per game.
His most recent triple double series was against the Portland Trailblazers last year. LeBron would put up 27.4, 10.2, and 10.2. There have also been numerous other instances of James being close to a triple double average in the playoffs.
In 2017, he was .2 assists and 1 rebound away from averaging a triple double in the first round against the Pacers, he missed out nearly in the 2015 Finals too against Golden State, only 1.2 rebounds away. There are countless other examples of this.
So, yes, Durant had an absolutely mind boggling performance last night, but let’s not discredit the number of times James has done this before too.