The Only NBA Franchise That Has a Winning Record Against LeBron James, and How They’ve Done It

LeBron James in his 22nd NBA season. | William Liang-Imagn Images

LeBron James has now played the most games in NBA history, passing Robert Parish earlier this week. James has appeared in 1,613 games in his career which is as good a time as any to look at how he's done against every team. And it turns out just one team still has the upper hand after 23 seasons.

That team is the Denver Nuggets, who are not only 25-23 in the regular season against King James, but also 9-5 in the postseason against him.

James has played postseason series against 24 different franchises, with the Mavericks, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Magic, Suns and Spurs being the only teams with winning records against him in the playoffs.

Of those teams only Denver and San Antonio have played more than one series against James. San Antonio swept the Cavaliers in 2007, lost to the Heat in 2013 and then beat them in a rematch in 2014. The Nuggets lost to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals in 2020 and then returned the favor in 2023.

So what is it about the Nuggets?

Why does LeBron have a losing record vs. the Nuggets?

The only team James has a losing record against in his career is the Denver Nuggets and that has a lot to do with one of his best friends. While James went 22-14 in his career in regular season games against Carmelo Anthony, Melo actually held a big advantage early in their careers as his Nuggets squads beat James in eight of their first 12 games against each other.

When James signed with the Heat and Melo forced a trade to the Knicks, James went 6-3. Then when he returned to Cleveland it got out of control, with the Cavaliers beating the Knicks in eight out of nine regular season games. In Melo's final seasons as a journeyman LeBron went 4-2.

With the Nuggets, James has been unable to make up the ground in the last few years as Nikola Jokic has held his own. The Joker's Nuggets are 12-13 against James's teams in the regular season.

Next year James, if he doesn’t retire and plays for the Lakers, will have three or four games against the Nuggets and will need to win at least three to get up to or above .500 against Denver.

LeBron James’s best records vs. teams

USA Today tallied up James's current regular season records against every team with him passing Parish on the all-time games played list. Interestingly enough, two of the teams he's beaten the most consistently are teams he's played for.

Opponent	Record	Win Percentage
Charlotte Hornets	50-9	.847
Cleveland Cavaliers	19-6	.760
Toronto Raptors	48-16	.750
Los Angeles Lakers	22-8	.733
Minnesota Timberwolves	33-12	.733

The Atlanta Hawks, who James has dominated in the postseason with three sweeps, are just outside the top five teams he's dominated in the regular season.

LeBron James’s worst records vs. teams

As for the team's he's struggled against the most, the Spurs and Nuggets are again at the top—or bottom—of the list.

Team	Record	Win Percentage
Chicago Bulls	37-31	.544
Miami Heat	26-22	.542
Houston Rockets	27-23	.540
San Antonio Spurs	25-22	.532
Denver Nuggets	23-25	.479

The most head-scratching entry on this list are the Rockets. While they aren't a rival they have however been mostly good. Houston has only finished under .500 five times since James was drafted 23 years ago. The Bulls are in the middle of their 10th losing season over the same period, but most of those bad years came after James left the Eastern Conference to join the Lakers.

James has his work cut out for him if he wants to get above .500 against the Nuggets and not slip under .500 against the Rockets or Spurs in the process. These are the types of things you have to worry about when you're LeBron James.

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