When you go back and look at the numbers Michael Jordan put up throughout his career, it is hard to imagine there was any player who was ever able to do such things. Jordan was a statistical anomaly, doing things that most players could not even dream of. For the first part of his career, Jordan quickly established himself as the best individual player in the league, scoring a great number of points on a regular basis. Michael Jordan holds some of the most unbreakable records the NBA has ever seen, something that will cement him in the history books forever.
According to Reddit user u/Jaruliday, one thing that Jordan holds over everyone who has ever played in the NBA is that he is the only player in the history of the league to average 40 points per game in multiple playoff series. Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Bernard King, and Rick Barry are the only other players to ever average 40 points per game in a playoff series, only doing it once in their careers. What makes Jordan’s achievement even greater is the fact that he has averaged 40 points per game in an NBA playoff series five times in his career, holding a great deal of distance over everyone else below him. Jordan’s numbers in the playoffs were truly something else.
Jordan averaged 43.7 points per game in his first playoff series against the Boston Celtics. It was in this series that Jordan set the record for most points by a player in a single playoff game with 63 points. Despite Jordan’s scoring, the Bulls got swept 3-0 in the series.
The next 40-point series for Jordan came in the historic matchup between Cleveland and Chicago. Jordan averaged 45.2 points per game and even hit one of the greatest game-winners in NBA history to clinch the series for Chicago.
Jordan averaged 43 points per game in the Bulls’ series against the 76ers in 1990, helping the Bulls reach the Eastern Conference Finals, only to lose to the Pistons. In 1992, Jordan and the Bulls, who were defending champions at the time, swept the Miami Heat 3-0 in the second round. Jordan averaged 45 points per game during the series and was the standout for the Bulls.
And his last 40-point series came in the 1993 NBA Finals, as Jordan averaged 41 points across six games to help the Bulls defeat the Phoenix Suns to win his third consecutive NBA championship. He scored 55 points in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, his highest total during his six trips to the NBA Finals. Jordan would retire after this championship win and then return two years later to the Bulls.
1986 First Round (0-3 vs Boston):
43.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 5.7 apg, 2.3 spg, 1.3 bpg.
51/100/87 splits, 58.4% TS and 51.1% EFG
1988 First Round (3-2 vs Cleveland):
45.2 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.8 apg, 2.8 spg, 1.6 bpg
56/00/92 splits, 63.2% TS and 55.9% EFG
1990 Second Round (4-1 vs Philadelphia):
43.0 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 7.4 apg, 4.0 spg, 1.2 bpg
55/39/85 splits, 61.6% TS and 57.6% EFG
1992 First Round (3-0 vs Miami):
45.0 ppg, 9.7 rpg, 6.7 apg, 3.0 spg, 1.0 bpg
61/00/91 splits, 66.8% TS and 60.9% EFG
1993 Finals (4-2 vs Phoenix):
41.0 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 6.3 apg, 1.7 spg, 0.7 bpg
51/40/69 splits, 55.8% TS and 53.3% EFG
Via Reddit user u/Jaruliday
Jordan was one of the most gifted scorers in the history of the league, showcasing his ability to put up crazy numbers on the stat sheet on a nightly basis. In fact, this scoring ability allowed Michael Jordan to win 10 NBA scoring titles between 1986 and 1998. When Jordan was in the mood, there was no one who could come close to stopping him. And the numbers he put up in these series suggest that Jordan was really in the mood when playing playoff basketball.
