Trailing the Bulls by 11 with 43 seconds left in the third quarter, the Cavs looked to be on the ropes, with blowout chatter heating up online. LeBron James was again struggling to find the bottom of the bucket, and Derrick Rose was in fine form.
But the Cavs came back to take an 84-79 lead with just 41 seconds left in the game behind perfect 3-for-3 from behind the arc by J.R. Smith and James’ insistence on getting into the teeth of Chicago’s defense. By then it was Chicago’s turn to wobble against the ropes, but like all things in this series, the momentum quickly flipped in favor of the home team.
Game 4 was a microcosm for this entire Bulls-Cavs series. So many stops and starts, the sheepish hivemind on NBA Twitter has been tripping all over themselves doubling back on a tweet they sent just a moment before. Any impulsive desire to have the first say was quickly stifled by the yo-yo u-turns for each team.
After the Cavs came back to take the late lead, Chicago showed their own mettle. Jimmy Butler hit a three-pointer with 27 seconds left to creep to a slim 84-82 deficit before the game took a turn towards the bizarre.
Cleveland took a timeout after advancing the ball across mid-court. With Mike Dunleavy stationed in the perfect spot to prevent an easy sideline inbounds to Matthew Dellavedova, the Cavs were forced to take three (!!!) more timeouts before even throwing the ball in. That meant they were out of timeouts for the remainder of the game.
The Cavs finally got the ball in, but LeBron caught it just across mid-court where he was quickly clamped down on by a double-team with Dunleavy and Rose crowding him and the center line acting as a third defender. LeBron swiped his left elbow to try and muscle between the two Bulls and ended up catching Dunleavy on the shoulder…
It was an easy offensive foul for the refs to call.
So with 12 seconds left, the Bulls had the ball with a chance to tie or win outright. They spread the floor and let D-Rose go to work. A quick crossover on Iman Shumpert sprung the Bulls point into the lane where he got the layup to fall with eight seconds left despite LeBron’s looming shadow closing in on him as he approached the hoop.
Tie game, 84-84.
It got a little hectic right then since the Cavs didn’t have a timeout left and the United Center was in hysterics. That didn’t stop Cavs coach David Blatt from trying to call a timeout, narrowly avoiding a Chris Webber bit of infamy if the Cavs assistants hadn’t jumped up to stop him.
LeBron ended up immediately taking the ball the length of the court before driving along the right baseline for an attempt at a game-winning bucket. It seemed like Joakim Noah fouled him when he was in the air, but Nikola Mitotic swatted James’ impotent shot into the stands with 0.8 seconds left; no foul was called, but the refs didn’t know who the ball hit last.
Remember, Cleveland had no timeouts, but they still got a chance to regroup and set up one more play because the refs were reviewing whether awarding the ball to Cleveland was the right call. With the extra time, the Cavs had their team in position; except, maybe they didn’t.
James had a different plan in mind than coach David Blatt, as LeBron explained after the game:
LeBron James' full explanation of how he overruled coach David Blatt on the final play of Game 4 win over Bulls pic.twitter.com/aDXjgmbzUI
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) May 10, 2015
LeBron James talks about the last plsy of the game pic.twitter.com/zLmjgIaVhc
— History of Sports (@BeforeFamePics) May 10, 2015
Here’s what James told Matthew Dellavedova before he passed the ball inbounds:
By now, you all know what happened: James popped out near the far corner, caught the pass, and added another chapter to his still-growing mythology:
The Q in Cleveland certainly dug it:
Pau Gasol’s stone countenance sums up the reaction for the Bulls:
Derrick Rose was spot-on when talking after the game:
“We knew that we had the opportunity to put them away and we didn’t.”
With the series at 2-2, the Cavs escaped Chicago by reclaiming homecourt in the most dramatic a fashion possible. They’ll be back at the Q at 7:00PM ET on Tuesday to try and take a 3-2 lead before heading north yet again.
We really thought the Cavs had collapsed in the final minute and the Bulls would go on to win in overtime. But the guy who had shot 9-of-29 from the field, and 1-of-7 from three up until that final second, didn’t want to see free basketball.
Basketball is, after all, just a game. And if you ever wondered why there were so many tears when LeBron decided to return to Cleveland, the ending to Game 4 should suffice. For now at least.
