The way the Denver Nuggets have dominated the Los Angeles Lakers over the past few years, it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that their regular starters have terrific winning records against LeBron James. It just so happened that after Denver’s latest 127-102 victory two nights ago, Michael Porter Jr is now the proud owner of the best-ever individual record against The King, with a mind-boggling win percentage of 81.3%.
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The 26-year-old has even left Nikola Jokic behind in his record against LBJ.
Reddit user MichaelPorterTruther made a post last night, updating users about this information. The record has a caveat that it only includes players who have started at least 10 games against James. But it’s still a really impressive feat for MPJ.
With last night’s win, Michael Porter Jr. owns a career record of 13-3 (.813) when starting against LeBron James. Among the 303 players in NBA history with 10+ starts against LeBron, none have a better record in those games than MPJ.
byu/MichaelPorterTruther innba
Porter, as the user rightfully proclaimed, has been a “thorn in the side of the Lakers” since he entered the Association in 2018. James has also recognized Porter Jr.’s skillset, having called the former 14th pick “a f*****g laser” on his podcast with JJ Redick.
“Michael Porter Jr. is a f—– laser. I don’t know if it’s just cause he sees the Lakers or the gold or whatever but I feel like, verses us, that motherf—– don’t miss. He does not miss…You know how they say ‘Close the gap, get to his chest.’ He doesn’t even see you. He doesn’t even see you.”
However, it’s not just because of his sharpshooting that MPJ owns that record. It’s also because the Lakers, over their last 14 contests, have only beaten the Nuggets once. It’s a shocking statistic yes, but somehow the Nuggets always manage to out-hustle the Lakers.
However, although Porter Jr. has the best-ever record against James, he doesn’t even come close to the player who has defeated James the most in his career. That title belongs to James’ old nemesis, Paul Pierce.
With a whopping 21 wins, it should really not be a surprise that ‘The Truth’ holds that particular record. After all, he spent most of his career in the East, with James.
The heated rivalry between Pierce’s Celtics and James’ early Cavaliers were followed by a similar rivalry between his Celtics and James’ Heat. And Pierce, who had the better team for a very long time, was able to rack up the wins pretty easily.
Pierce played against LeBron 39 times in his career, and still managed to garner a winning record. The closest player to him is former Chicago Bulls big man Luol Deng, who’s beaten the King 19 times (also in 39 appearances).
