After a 1–4 start to the 2012–13 season, the Lakers fired Brown as head coach and hired Mike D'Antoni. On December 18, 2012, in a win against the Philadelphia 76ers, he grabbed a career high 16 rebounds to add to his 19 points. On January 11, 2013, he suffered a right leg injury against the Thunder that would hamper him for two months. Around the same time, he also had an injury to his right arm that made it difficult to bend. His health worsened to the point where D'Antoni moved him off the perimeter on defense and had him guard power forwards instead. By mid-March, he was able to guard the perimeter again. On March 25, against the Golden State Warriors, World Peace tore the lateral meniscus in his left knee. He underwent surgery that was originally estimated to sideline him for six weeks. Despite the estimates, he returned 12 days after his surgery. In his absence, D'Antoni was using a reduced seven-man rotation with Kobe Bryant playing close to all 48 minutes each game. World Peace wanted to reduce his teammates' workload, if even for a few minutes, as the Lakers fought to qualify for the playoffs. The Lakers qualified for the playoffs as the seventh seed, but were swept 4–0 by San Antonio in the first round. Due to the Lakers' other injuries, World Peace played in Game 3 in spite of running with discomfort after having fluid drained from a cyst behind his surgically repaired left knee. He missed the final game of the series, and later admitted he came back too soon. For the season, he averaged his most points (12.4) since 2008–09, and shot his highest percentage (.404) since 2009–10. Still, ESPN wrote those numbers indicated that "the 33-year-old is clearly on the decline."