Revisiting LeBron's 27-1 record against MJ's Bobcats/Hornets

LeBron James swears there's no added motivation, but it can't be a coincidence that he always dominates Michael Jordan's franchise.

Since Jordan purchased a majority share of the Bobcats-turned-Hornets in March 2010, James has won 27-of-28 games against Charlotte. That stretch has included a 21-game win streak, a playoff series sweep in 2014, and a whopping 15 of those 27 victories by double-digits.

With the Cavaliers set to face the Hornets on Friday, let's look back at the lopsided history of James against Jordan's team.

The 61-point game

James scored a career-high 61 points on the Bobcats during a 124-107 win for his Miami Heat in 2014.

Dwyane Wade sat out the game to rest his aging body, which left James to carry the load - and he was relentless. He made 8-of-10 from deep, and with a plodder like Al Jefferson serving as the last line of defense, James strolled to the rim for layup after layup.

Overall the King shot 22-of-33 from the field and 9-of-12 from the charity stripe. Only two other Heat players finished in double digits, but Charlotte still suffered the loss.

Strangely enough, this wasn't even the worst performance of the season by the Bobcats' defense against an individual player, as they allowed Carmelo Anthony to drop his career best of 62 points two months earlier.

Staring down Jordan

James tried to play it off, but it's hard to argue with the tape.

As he stormed down the court for one of his signature transition dunks in Game 3 of the 2014 playoffs, James stared daggers toward the end of the Bobcats' bench right where Jordan sits.

The cultural significance of the play was hard to deny. This was supposed to be the moment when James, after back-to-back championships, officially declared to Jordan that he was coming to take his throne. It became a massive talking point.

But of course, James denied it. Was he staring at his childhood idol, or was he subtly signalling for Brendan Haywood to join him in Cleveland? We'll never know for sure, even if it's quite obvious what he was doing.

"No, no. Don’t start that. Absolutely not, man. Absolutely not," James said of the incident to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. "I was able to read (Josh) McRoberts, get a steal and push the lead back up. I absolutely didn’t look at MJ, for sure."

LeBron sweeps Jordan's team

The stare-down became the definitive highlight of an otherwise routine first-round sweep of Jordan's Bobcats by James' Heat.

LeBron was tremendous, as always. He averaged 30 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and 2.3 steals in the series while hitting 56 percent from the field. He was a cumulative plus-38 in the four games.

Give the Bobcats credit for keeping it relatively close. They nearly stole Game 2 on the road after Michael Kidd-Gilchrist played the game of his life, and stayed within a few possessions of the Heat in all four contests. But the end result was never in doubt.

James dapped up Jordan after the series was over, but it was a very short encounter. He said he wanted to show MJ "a sign of respect," and to congratulate his team on a decent season.

One-sided talk

James has always gone out of his way to show respect (he even wears Jordan's number), but the same can't necessarily be said for His Airness, who's largely been standoffish in return.

Jordan criticized James in 2010 for the latter's move to South Beach ("I would have never called up Larry, called up Magic, and said let's get together and play on one team"), and complained earlier this year that stars joining up was bad for the league ("Twenty-eight teams are going to be garbage").

Jordan also took Kobe Bryant over James in 2013, offering the rationale that "five beats one every time" in reference to their rings. James has since won another two titles, but that still leaves him behind Bryant by Jordan's estimation.

On the subject of a potential Space Jam reboot, the original movie's iconic star said in 2016 that he wanted Blake Griffin to serve as the leading man, despite growing rumors that James was angling for the role.

MJ celebrates that single win

Jordan was beyond thrilled when Charlotte finally got that one win over James in 2016.

The Hornets were without Kemba Walker (who's never beaten James), but Jeremy Lin stepped up in Walker's absence to score a team-high 24 points in a 106-97 win in Charlotte.

The typically stoic Jordan was all smiles after the game (see below). He happily hugged his players as they walked off the floor (save for Spencer Hawes), and even interrupted Lin's postgame interview to slap him on the backside for his heroic efforts.

(Courtesy: NBA.com)

James played the role of politician after the rare loss. He said playing Jordan's team did not give him any added motivation, and claimed he treated it like any other game.

"Um, I don't know," James said after the loss, according to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. "I've always just tried to play every game like it's my last and I've been very successful. Just go out and try to win them all. I love to compete, I try to win every game. Obviously it doesn't happen that way, but if you leave it on the floor you can be satisfied with it."

Based on Jordan's reaction, it was far from being any other game.

So many incredible highlights

Name a play, and there's a good chance James pulled it off against Charlotte at some point since Jordan purchased the team. In fact, his memorable moments against the franchise have been better than the career highlight reels of most Hall of Famers.

Here's a two-handed reverse dunk by James in 2011 that would have easily scored 45 or better in a dunk contest.

Here he is going baseline for a hammer jam, twice. That's not a replay - that's just James pulling off the exact same move on back-to-back plays.

Here's the signature play by the Big Three, in which Wade would find James with full-court passes, and vice versa. Again, these came on back-to-back possessions.

Here's James taking on all five Bobcats, with three players challenging his shot at the rim. He still made the and-1.

Here's James immediately atoning for his turnover by blocking the living daylights out of D.J. White. He not only chased down White, but somehow got in front of him to meet face to face at the rim.

Here's James coming out of nowhere to block a jumper, and then taking it the length of the floor for a dunk. Walker yelling at James did absolutely nothing to stop the inevitable.

Here's James steaming full speed into a body check from Boris Diaw, who pushed 300 pounds at the time. Naturally, James not only absorbed the contact, but managed to rise up for a steady bank shot off the glass and an and-1.

And finally, The Big Three did their usual postgame shenanigans after James scored 32 points on 14 shots to lead the Heat to their 26th straight win in 2013. Wade played the role of reporter, while Chris Bosh made some awkward moves in the background.