LeBron James has experienced playoff sweeps during his NBA career, though they are rare. Despite his success, there have been instances where his teams lost every game in a playoff series.
Key points
LeBron James has been swept in the playoffs.
He has missed the playoffs only four times.
James was selected No. 1 overall in the 2003 NBA Draft.
He has had competitive playoff runs throughout his career.
LeBron James has done a whole lot of winning and not much losing in his NBA career.
Since being selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, James has been a mainstay in the NBA's postseason. Over his entire career, he's missed the playoffs only four times, two of which came in his rookie and sophomore seasons.
When James does make the playoffs, he usually goes on competitive and deep runs. But that doesn't mean teams haven't gotten the best of James — on a few occasions, his teams have failed to win a single game in a playoff series. While it's not a position James has been in many times before, he has been swept.
Here's a full breakdown of the times a James-led team has been swept.
James has been swept four times in his NBA career.
The first time a James-led unit failed to win a game in a playoff series came on the biggest stage. In 2007, James led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals for the first time in his career, but , and were too much to handle, leading to a 4-0 series win to sweep .
Q&A
How many times has LeBron James been swept in the playoffs?
LeBron James has been swept in the playoffs a few times throughout his career.
What years did LeBron James experience playoff sweeps?
The specific years when LeBron James was swept in the playoffs are detailed in his complete playoff history.
What teams swept LeBron James in the playoffs?
The teams that swept LeBron James in the playoffs can be found in the history of his playoff series.
How often has LeBron James missed the playoffs?
LeBron James has missed the playoffs only four times since entering the NBA in 2003.
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For the third time in his career, a James team was swept out of the postseason in 2023, when the the Lakers fell to the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.
Most recently, a 41-year-old James was swept out of the 2026 playoffs by the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder, a series the Lakers lost after an injury to Luka Doncic.
In total, as of May 2026, James has played 57 playoff series, 42 of which have ended in victories for his team. Of those 57, just four have ended with his team being swept.
It sounds outlandish now, but there was once a time in James' young career where he faced major questions over whether he could be a championship player — despite all of his hype coming into the NBA, a Rookie of the Year award and two All-Star nods by the end of his third season, the Cavaliers had missed the playoffs twice before their 2006 second-round exit.
For the most part, that all changed with James' 2007 playoff run. After winning 50 games in the regular season under head coach Mike Brown, the Cavaliers inched closer to their first championship ever. Cleveland swept Washington in Round 1, took down the Nets in six games in Round 2, then took down Rip Hamilton, Chauncey Billups and the Pistons in six games of the Eastern Conference Finals.
James, on a playoff tear that included a 48-point Game 5 win over the Pistons, was bound for his first NBA Finals. But he faced a harsh reality upon that arrival: the San Antonio Spurs.
Gregg Popovich's unit, which won 58 regular season games and beat the Jazz in the Western Conference Finals, rolled through the Cavaliers. Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili were outstanding, while the Spurs also had elite role players like Bruce Bowen and Robert Horry.
San Antonio held James to 14 points on 4-of-16 shooting in a Game 1 win, relied on 55 combined points from Parker and Ginobili in a Game 2 win, held on in a low-scoring Game 3 as James missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer, then completed the sweep in Game 4 by fending off a Cavaliers comeback in a one-point win.
Parker was named Finals MVP, and the series was over in just four games after James' first Finals berth.
2018 NBA Finals vs. Warriors
By 2018, NBA fans were almost expecting a Cavaliers vs. Warriors Finals matchup every year. Those two teams had won their respective conferences in each of the last three years already, with Cleveland consistently leaning on its core of James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, and Golden State bringing out Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green each season.
Things had changed in the Finals rivalry when Kevin Durant joined the Warriors in 2016 free agency, leading the Warriors to their 2017 title over the Cavaliers. Heading into 2018, Golden State owned two of the last three championships, while Cleveland had the other in 2016.
Even if the 2018 Finals matchup was the one everybody expected, Part 4 of Cavaliers vs. Warriors, it didn't bring much long-term entertainment. Golden State was at the beat of its dynastic powers, with the Durant-Curry-Thompson-Green lineup proving far too difficult to stop over a seven-game series.
James made somewhat of a herculean effort just to get Cleveland to its fourth-straight Finals. The Cavaliers struggled to begin the 2017-18 season, their first without Irving after he was traded in the offseason. But after revamping nearly the entire roster at the trade deadline, landing players like Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr. and Rodney Hood while shipping away Dwayne Wade, Derrick Rose and Isaiah Thomas, the Cavaliers still went on a deep postseason run.
James was dominated every game of the playoffs, leading Cleveland to a Game 7 win over the Pacers in Round 1, a sweep of the Raptors in Round 2, then a Game 7 win over the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. Averaging 34.0 points and 9.0 assists per game in the playoffs, James almost single-handedly guided the Cavaliers to another rematch vs. Golden State.
But this time, it was plain and obvious that Cleveland lacked the firepower to beat the Warriors' talent. James went for a playoff-career high 51 points in Game 1 on the road, but a blunder from. J.R. Smith — the veteran guard thought his team had the late lead and began to dribble out of a rebound instead of getting another shot up — resulted in overtime, where the Warriors held on.
From there, all momentum was in Golden State's favor. The Warriors got 59 combined points from Curry and Durant in a Game 2 win, relied on a 43-point, 13-rebound performance from Durant in a Game 3 win, then closed out the sweep with a road blowout in Game 4.
Durant won Finals MVP, while James famously checked out as a member of the Cavaliers for the final time. The following offseason, he signed with the Lakers.
2023 Western Conference Finals vs. Nuggets
James had already brought the Lakers their 2020 championship by the time the 2022-23 season came around, owning four titles on his resume. And even after a 43-win season that resulted in the No. 7 seed, meaning Los Angeles had to win a Play-In Tournament game, James and Anthony Davis led the Lakers on a deep playoff run.
In Round 1, the Lakers upset the second-seeded Grizzlies in six games, and in Round 2, James got the best of his longtime rival, Curry, as Los Angeles beat Golden State in six games.
The Lakers were four wins away from their second Finals berth with James, matched up against Nikola Jokic's Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals. But despite clawing their way through four competitive games against Denver, the Lakers couldn't pull out a win.
In Game 1, Denver held off a Lakers comeback that included 40 points from Davis — Jokic was dominant as well, going for 34 points, 21 rebounds and 14 assists. Once again in Game 2, the Lakers were hanging around, but fell by five points due to a 37-point performance from Jamal Murray.
As the series moved to Los Angeles, the Lakers still couldn't answer. Murray added another 37 points in Game 3 for a Nuggets win. In Game 4, Denver erased a 15-point halftime deficit, with Jokic hitting a few clutch shots while recording a triple-double — the Nuggets swept the series, marking their first Finals berth in franchise history and first series sweep ever. James had 40 points in the loss.
The Nuggets went on to win the title over Miami, meaning that all three teams that have swept James went on to win the following championship.
2026 Second Round vs. Thunder
Considering the circumstances of James' fourth lost sweep in his career, it's hard to blame him.
At 41 years old entering the 2026 NBA Playoffs, James, all of a sudden, went from the Lakers' third-to-first offensive option due to injuries to Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. Still, in the first round, James led the Lakers to a six-game series win over the Rockets, which set up a second-round matchup against the defending champions.
But even with Reaves' return, L.A. was easily beat by the better team. The Thunder steamrolled through the Lakers, as they had to many teams over the past year; both Games 1 and 2 were blowout wins for Oklahoma City at home, with James' 27 points in Game 1 and 23 in Game 2 not nearly enough.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company continued rolling in Los Angeles. In Game 3, seven different Thunder players scored in double-digits in another easy victory. And in Game 4, the Lakers kept things closer in a five-point loss, but missed clutch shots from James and Reaves sent their squad home after four games.
James officially entered his age-41 offseason, facing significant questions over his future.
James is a four-time NBA champion with four Finals MVP awards.
James has won a title with each team he's played with. He won two championships as a member of the Heat (2012 and 2013). He then ended Cleveland's 52-year championship drought in 2016 by leading the Cavaliers in a historic 3-1 comeback over the Warriors.
James won his fourth ring in 2020 with the Lakers.
James has been to the NBA Finals 10 times, including eight straight appearances between 2010 and 2018. Only Celtics legends Sam Jones (11) and Bill Russell (12) have been to the Finals more times.
