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The Lakers looked to be headed toward a swift playoff exit after losing Game 3 at home against the Nuggets to fall into a 3-0 hole in the first-round series.
Denver had beaten Los Angeles 11 times in a row dating back to the 2022-23 regular season. And no matter what the Lakers threw at MVP candidate Nikola Jokic, they had no answer.
It would have been easy for Los Angeles to roll over in Game 4 and start planning early vacations, but LeBron James and Anthony Davis had other plans. James went off for 30 points, and Davis added 25 points and 23 rebounds, as the Lakers snapped their losing skid against the Nuggets.
“We’ve given ourselves another life,” James said after Los Angeles’ win while facing elimination. “We’ve given ourselves another lifeline, and it’s a one-game series for us.”
With the Lakers trailing 3-1 in the series, it’s time to cue the classic LeBron James 3-1 meme from the 2016 NBA Finals.
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LeBron James 3-1 meme, explained
The LeBron James 3-1 meme is a picture of James with sunglasses and headphones on. The shot came from the NBA TV broadcast, which captured James locking in ahead of the Cavaliers’ crucial Game 5 against the Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals.
The graphic on the screen showed that Cleveland had to make history in order to pull off an improbable comeback against a Golden State team that finished a record-breaking 73-9 during the regular season.
“No team in NBA Finals history has come back from trailing 3-1 (0-32),” the NBA TV graphic reads.
Five years ago today, LeBron gave us this iconic meme while down 3-1 to the Warriors in the NBA Finals 😎 pic.twitter.com/9jr4nEUcGu
— ESPN (@espn) June 8, 2021
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How LeBron James 3-1 meme started
The meme wouldn’t have had a very long shelf life if James and the Cavaliers didn’t complete the historic comeback — but they did.
Trailing 3-1 in the series against a Warriors team with the best record in NBA history, James and Cleveland looked all but certain to come up short of a championship in the 2016 NBA Finals. Then James shifted into another gear with the Cavaliers facing elimination.
In Game 5, Cleveland took advantage of a shorthanded Golden State squad that was without star forward Draymond Green, who had to serve a one-game suspension for reaching the NBA’s postseason technical foul limit in Game 4.
James and Kyrie Irving became the first pair of teammates to score 40 points in the same game in NBA Finals history, and the Cavaliers came away with a convincing win to bring the series to 3-2.
Coming back to Cleveland for Game 6, the Cavaliers took care of business again behind another 41-point performance from James. And you probably know how things went down in Game 7.
LeBron’s iconic “Blocked by James!” eventually turned into Irving’s historic game-winner, as the Cavaliers won Game 7 on the road to become the first team in NBA Finals history to overcome a 3-1 deficit.
And that is how the LeBron James 3-1 meme became engraved in the imaginary Internet Hall of Fame.
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