The Cleveland Cavaliers led the Atlanta Hawks 90-76 with 4:58 remaining in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Philips Arena was shellshocked by a possibly serious injury to DeMarre Carroll (he’s day-to-day); the Hawks had managed just two points in the previous three minutes and two seconds; and LeBron James was rolling.
The home team’s subsequent run to make the game’s final moments matter was something close to shocking. Cleveland led only 91-87 with just under a minute remaining after Kent Bazemore finished in transition, making a wholly improbable comeback suddenly seem very realistic. One stop, and the Hawks were in business. But James took advantage of multiple Atlanta defensive breakdowns on the ensuing possession and soared for a massive slam that effectively put the game away for good.
The Cavaliers went onto beat the Hawks 97-89 behind 31 points, eight rebounds, and six assists from The King, who became the league’s all-time postseason leader in games of at least 30-5-5. Yet he still wasn’t satisfied by his performance.
Here’s James on his late-game play via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin:
“We can’t worry about how many points we’re up or how many points we’re down; we have to continue to play our game. It starts with me. I take all the responsibility for it,” James said. “In the fourth quarter, I played way too much isolation basketball, one-on-one basketball [with] a lot of the defenses set, and I was letting the clock run down way too much. I just had to take the shot or I was giving it to my guys late in the shot clock, and they couldn’t do nothing with it besides shoot it or turn the ball over.”
He’s right, of course.
Cleveland’s crunch-time offense devolved into possession after possession of James isolating against Paul Millsap from the perimeter. And while the Hawks’ starting power forward is indeed ill-equipped to handle that assignment for a game’s duration, he’s plenty strong and nimble to bother LeBron on occasion – and Millsap did so consistently in the final minutes of Game 1.
The four-time MVP missed five consecutive shots once the Cavaliers took their seemingly insurmountable 14-point lead, and his team scored just a single point between then and his dagger dunk, too. Film of the Cavaliers’ offense down the stretch reveals exactly what James describes: A lot of dribbling followed by difficult contested shots of his own or rushed attempts by his teammates.
What a boon for David Blatt that his best player doesn’t only realize his mistakes, but is comfortable enough to publicly own up to them. But talking about playing a different style in the clutch won’t mean anything if James doesn’t do it when the time comes, certainly a possibility given his penchant for ball-stopping when his team needs a basket most.
Only time will tell if LeBron will make the adjustments he knows are necessary going forward. We’ll begin to find out during Friday night’s Game 2.
[ESPN]
