<p>LeBron James has entered unchartered waters.</p>
<p>He has been to the NBA playoffs in 15 of his 18 NBA seasons, and has never missed the second round — a streak that is now very much in doubt. James and the Los Angeles Lakers trail their first-round series against Phoenix 3-2, with Game 6 in Los Angeles on Thursday.</p>
<p>Game 7, if necessary, is back in Phoenix on Saturday.</p>
<p>James’ 14-0 record in first-round series — counting his times in Cleveland, his four-year run in Miami and now his Lakers’ stint — is almost beyond compare in NBA history. Robert Horry and Derek Fisher both played in the first round 16 times; their teams went 16-0 in those series. They are the only players who have enjoyed more first-round success than James.</p>
<p>Now, he’s on the brink of something he’s never experienced. The approach, from here, is simple.</p>
<p>“You shoot all the bullets you’ve got and throw the gun too,” James said. “I look forward to the environment. Obviously, our Laker faithful are going to give us a lot of energy. I look forward to the moment. I look forward to the challenge and see if it brings out the best in me and my teammates.”</p>
<p>This marks the first time that James has been on a team that is trailing after five games of a first-round series. He has played one elimination game in a first round, that being three years ago when Indiana took Cleveland to a Game 7.</p>
<p>Yet there are numbers, particularly in Phoenix’s Game 5 romp, the likes of which that James has never previously had to deal with.</p>
<p>His Lakers lost the second quarter of Game 5 by 22 points, the most lopsided quarter James has been on the wrong end of during a playoff game. They were down by 30 at halftime, another first in his career.</p>
<p>A look, by the numbers, at this unprecedented moment in James’ career:</p>
<p>0 — The number of times, before this series, that a team with James lost consecutive first-round games. Entering these playoffs, a team with James had been 11-0 in first-round games immediately following losses. The Lakers are 1-2 after losses in this series.</p>
<p>1 — James has faced an elimination game in the first round of the playoffs only one other time, that being Game 7 of the 2018 opening round between Cleveland and Indiana. James scored 45 points and the Cavaliers won 105-101.</p>
<p>2 — The number of players with a better series record in first-round matchups than James. Robert Horry and Derek Fisher were both 16-0 in opening rounds. For comparison’s sake, Karl Malone and John Stockton were both 10-9, Michael Jordan was 10-3 and Kobe Bryant was 13-2.</p>
<p>14-10 — James’ record in elimination games. His Cleveland teams were 9-8 when facing elimination, his Miami teams were 5-2 and this is the first time he’s faced elimination as a member of the Lakers.</p>
<p>21 — James’ teams once won 21 consecutive first-round games, a stint spanning 2012 through the start of the 2018 playoffs with Miami and Cleveland.</p>
<p>22.2 — James’ scoring average in this series against Phoenix so far. That is his lowest average in 15 career first-round matchups. He’s had a lower average in only two of his 49 previous playoff series; he averaged 22.0 points in Cleveland’s 2007 NBA Finals loss to San Antonio and 17.8 points in Miami’s 2011 NBA Finals loss to Dallas.</p>
<p>128 — The number of players who, in the NBA’s 16-team playoff format since 1984, have appeared in at least 44 first-round games. (The number becomes 129 when Jae Crowder plays for Phoenix in Game 6.) None of them have a better record in those games than James does; his teams have gone 58-14, a winning percentage of .806. Jordan’s first-round winning percentage was .674 (with a 1-9 start), Bryant’s was .676, Fisher’s was .740 and Horry’s was .750. Malone (44-42) was barely over .500 in first-round games and Stockton (43-43) was exactly .500.</p>
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