Michael Jordan, Rick Barry, and LeBron James
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The NBA Finals have given plenty of superstars a chance to cement their legend while competing for a championship. That includes the players who’ve risen to the occasion of the league’s biggest stage while consistently showcasing their ability to rack up points in their quest for a title.
No players have averaged more points in the NBA Finals than these guys
Steve Nash is probably the most accomplished player who never got the chance to play in the NBA Finals, and he headlines a list that also includes fellow greats like Carmelo Anthony, Dominque Wilkins, and George Gervin when it comes to Hall of Famers who were never on one of the two teams left standing in the playoffs.
However, that hallowed institution is overflowing with players who not only got the chance to compete for a ring on multiple occasions but were ultimately able to manage to secure at least one while firming up the résumé that led to them being immortalized in Springfield.
That includes the ones who had a tendency to go on an absolute tear when a championship was on the line, which is certainly the case with the superstars who’ve averaged the most points per game while appearing in at least 10 contests in the NBA Finals.
T. 11. Kyrie Irving: 25.5 PPG
Kyrie Irving on the Mavericks
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As things currently stand, Kyrie Irving is tied for 11th on the all-time list when it comes to the players with the most average points scored in an NBA Finals game.
He’s appeared in 18 games, and he got his first taste when the Cavaliers lost to the Warriors in 2015. He scored 22 points in Game 1 of that series before he was knocked out for the remainder after suffering a broken knee in the overtime loss. However, he got a shot at redemption against Golden State the following season and averaged 27.1 PPG while securing what remains his only championship (the 41 points he scored in Game 3 is his career high for this particular series).
Irving averaged 29.4 against the Warriors when the Cavs fell in five games in 2017, but he saw his total take a hit when he was limited to 19.8 when the Mavericks fell to the Celtics in 2024 (he was sitting at 27.7 heading into the series).
T-11. Julius Erving: 25.5 PPG
Julius Erving on the 76ers
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The other man tied for 11th is a slightly different type of Erving: the man known as “Dr. J.”
Julius Erving competed in the NBA Finals on four occasions, although he’d have an average of 28.7 PPG if you accounted for his two runs to the championship round as a member of the New York Nets when the team was still a member of the ABA (both of those ended with a title).
He made his NBA Finals debut with the 76ers in 1977 and put up an average of 30.3 points before they lost to the Trail Blazers in six games (scoring a career-high 40 in the elimination game). He averaged his overall Finals average in the final in another six-game loss to the Lakers in 1980, and saw that number drop by half a point when they fell to the same team in the same manner a couple of years later.
However, Erving was finally able to get over the hump in 1983 to get his only NBA title despite contributing “just” 19 PPG as Philadelphia finally got the best of Los Angeles with the sweep.
10. Elgin Baylor: 26.39 PPG
Elgin Baylor
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The Lakers are well represented on this list across multiple generations, and we’ve got our first appearance from a man best known for his time in purple and gold courtesy of Elgin Baylor.
Baylor has the dubious distinction of playing in the NBA Finals seven times while failing to win a single title, as he had the misfortune of playing during the era where the Celtics won 11 championships in 13 seasons beginning in 1957 while dispatching Los Angeles six times (he and the Lakers also lost to the Knicks in 1970).
Baylor still managed to hold his own in those series. He peaked with 40.6 points per game against Boston in 1962, and he also set an NBA Finals record that has never been topped with the 61 points he dropped in Game 5.
His numbers declined a bit in his last two series (averaging 18 PPG in 1969 and 17.9 against New York the following year), but his consistency in the 44 games he played in puts him in the Top 10.
9. Steph Curry: 27.29 PPG
Steph Curry
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We’re returning to active players with Steph Curry, the man who has put on a show more often than not in the 34 NBA Finals games he’s played in while winning four of the six series where he’s vied for the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
The deadly sharpshooter has never averaged less than the 22.6 points he had during his second trip to the Finals in 2016, and he’s only gotten better with age when you consider he peaked with 31.2 PPG during his most recent appearance (and championship) in 2022, a performance that came after he set a personal best with 30.5 against the Raptors in 2019.
Only time will tell if Curry will have the opportunity to play in another one before his career comes to an end, but he doesn’t have much left to prove at this point.
8. Hakeem Olajuwon: 27.47 PPG
Hakeem Olajuwon
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Hakeen Olajuwon had a relatively light NBA Finals workload compared to the last couple of guys we’ve mentioned, as he only played in 17 games while winning two of the three series he competed in.
His sole loss came when the Rockets came up short against the Celtics in 1986, but it was not for lack of trying on the part of the man who averaged 24.7 points. He had to wait until 1994 to get another shot, but he ended up with 26.9 PPG and Most Valuable Player honors as Houston dispatched the Knicks in seven games.
They defended the crown the following season as Olajuwon became just the second player to win Finals MVP in back-to-back years while averaging 32.8 points (and never scoring less than 31) in a sweep of the Magic.
7. Bob Pettit: 28.36 PPG
Bob Pettit
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There are a few throwbacks on this list, and there’s also not a single player who has a higher chance of making a casual NBA fan say “Who?” than Bob Pettit.
The answer is “a two-time MVP and 10-time First All-NBA Team member who was an All-Star every single season he played,” all 11 of which came when he was a member of the team that is now the Atlanta Hawks.
That franchise was still based in St. Louis when Pettit made four trips to the NBA Finals while playing a grand total of 25 games. As was the case with Baylor, he was unlucky enough to run into the Celtics on all four of those occasions. However, he never averaged less than the 25.7 points he had in 1967 (one of three losses to Boston), and the 29.3 PPG he ended up with while getting a title in 1958 was second only to his 30.1 showing the previous season.
6. LeBron James: 28.4 PPG
LeBron James
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No one has scored more points in the playoffs than LeBron James, who also sits in second place when it comes to the players with the most in the history of the NBA Finals with 1,562.
LeBron has made it to the last round on ten occasions while winning a title four times (and winning Finals MVP the same number of times). His low for a single series is the 17.8 PPG he had when the Heat lost to the Mavericks in 2011, and he hit a high of 35.8 when the Cavaliers fell to the Warriors in 2015.
He is also just one of seven players who’ve scored at least 50 points in an NBA Finals game thanks to the 51 he put up against Golden State in 2018, which is good for the fifth-highest total of all time.
5. Shaquille O’Neal: 28.83 PPG
Shaq on the Lakers
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There’s plenty of debate about whether Kobe Bryant or Shaquille O’Neal deserves more credit for the dynasty the Lakers built when they assembled that dynamic duo, but the latter wins the point when it comes to points scored in the NBA Finals (the former sits in 13th on the all-time list with 25.32).
One of the best big men to ever do it appeared in the NBA Finals six times (with a grand total of 30 games) while winning three rings with Los Angeles and another with the Heat.
The series in Miami put a dent in the overall number after he averaged 13.7 points. 26.6 had been his low prior to that point, and he’d averaged at least 33 in all three appearances with the Lakers (including a peak of 38 during the first leg of the three-peat in 2000, where he also became the second player after Michael Jordan to win Finals MVP three times in a row).
4. Kevin Durant: 30.33 PPG
Kevin Durant during 2018 NBA Finals
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Kevin Durant has one of the smallest bodies of work on this list with just 15 playoff games between his single NBA Finals appearance with the Thunder and the three he had as a member of the Warriors.
He did what he could to lift Oklahoma City past the Heat in 2012 with 30.6 PPG, and hit a Finals high with 35.2 in his first run with the Warriors in 2017 before going back-to-back on the MVP front with 28.8 the following year. The 11 points he averaged in 2019 is technically his low, but it was the result of the torn Achilles he suffered after playing just a single full quarter in the series with the Raptors.
3. Jerry West: 30.53 PPG
Jerry West
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Jerry West is the holder of an NBA Finals record that has stood for over 50 years, as the 1,679 points he racked up over the course of his nine series as a member of the Lakers remains the highest total of all time (LeBron is the only active player who has a chance of unseating him in the near future).
With the exception of the 29.5 PPG he had in the Finals in 1963, West averaged at least 31 points in his first seven appearances (peaking with 37.9 in 1969). However, he also ran into the Celtics buzzsaw while losing to Boston six times, and he only ended up with a single title (in 1972 against the Knicks) while playing 55 games across nine different series.
2. Michael Jordan: 33.6 PPG
Michael Jordan 1996 Chicago Bulls
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You had to know it was only a matter of time until Michael Jordan showed up, as he was a six-time champion who pulled off two three-peats with the Bulls and never lost in the NBA Finals while getting the Most Valuable Player nod every single time.
Chicago’s victory over Seattle was the only time His Airness averaged less than 30 (he ended up with 27.3 PPG). He also had an absurd series against the Suns in 1993 while averaging 41, where he tied the man at the top of this list for the second-most points in a contest with the 55 he dropped on Phoenix in Game 4.
1. Rick Barry: 36.3 PPG
Rick Barry on the Warriors
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Last, but not least, we have Rick Barry, who qualified for the list by meeting the bare minimum of the 10 NBA Finals games he played in during two series as a member of the Warriors (although he’d still be in first if you factored in the 31.5 PPG with the Nets in the ABA Finals in 1972).
Barry averaged 40.8 points over six games while losing to the 76ers in 1967 (he had his 55 points in Game 3), and he finished with 29.5 PPG when the Warriors swept the team that was then known as the “Washington Bullets” in 1975 while getting his lone championship and Finals MVP.