An astonishing stat reveals the true dominance of Michael Jordan in the playoffs, and how the rest of the NBA doesn’t even come close to His Airness.
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It’s no secret by now that Michael Jordan was the greatest ever to do it. However, what separated him from the rest was that he stepped it up when it mattered most i.e playoffs. In fact, the 6x NBA champion was so dominant that he led the Chicago Bulls to 13 straight playoff appearances.
In fact, his scoring numbers, especially in the postseason, almost seem unbelievable when you look at them on paper. It’s hard to believe that any player was able to dominate to the degree that MJ did during his time in the league. On any single night, the Hall-of-Famer could just take over and destroy the opposition defense.
On this day in 1986, Michael Jordan dropped 63 points vs. Boston—the most ever in an NBA playoff game.
MJ was 23.
Larry Bird had never seen anything like Mike. pic.twitter.com/OCucDSXuGo
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 20, 2021
Michael Jordan was in a class of his own in the playoffs.
Even though Michael Jordan dominated in the regular season, the 14x All-star was at his best when the lights shine on him the brightest. In fact, when ‘His Airness turned it on, he was nearly unstoppable. There really isn’t a more dominant player in recent memory in the NBA.
And the numbers prove it. His Airness averaged no fewer than 30.7 and as many as 35.1 points per game, which helped him win six Finals MVP awards. In fact, just take a look at this stat:
My apologies.
*3 for everyone else
— All-NBA (@FactNbamuse) April 7, 2022
To put things into perspective, the other 3 on the list are LeBron James in 09’, Kobe Bryant in 12’ and Giannis did it last year, and MJ did it thrice all alone. This alone is a true testament to how great the Bulls guard was during his tenure in the NBA.
Moreover, his playoff average of 33.45 points per game is the highest of all time, including eight fifty-point games. His 38 games in the playoffs with 40-plus points is the most ever, and his all-time record of 30-plus point playoff games totals 109. He also had more 20-plus point games than anyone ever with 173.
Michael Jordan Scoring Averages by Situation:
▪️Regular Season: 30.1 PPG
▪️Playoffs: 33.4 PPG
▪️NBA Finals: 33.6 PPG
▪️Game 7: 36.8 PPG
(game 5 of first round included)Jordan’s game rose with the pressure. Just one of the reasons why he’s the Greatest Ever pic.twitter.com/T3x5XU79kn
— ¹ (@A1Hoopz) August 22, 2020
And more so, he did all this while going unbeaten in the finals. These statistics are just a testament to Jordan’s greatness, playoffs or not. And it’s gonna be a whole before we such numbers put up again. In the meantime, enjoy the GOAT, that is Michael Jordan.