LeBron Joked About His Game 5 Block Of Victor Oladipo Being A Goaltend

LeBron James put together a virtuoso performance in Game 5 of Cavs-Pacers to give Cleveland a 3-2 lead going into Game 6 in Indiana. James had 44 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists, one steal, and one block in the 98-95 win, including the game-winner at the buzzer.

It was one of James’ best single-game playoff performances of his career, and the Cavs needed every bit of it to get the win. However, his late-game heroics didn’t come without controversy, courtesy of that lone block of the game.

James got that block with the game tied at 95-95 as Victor Oladipo drove past him for what appeared to be the lead-taking layup for Indiana, but James, as he is wont to do, pinned it off the backboard to preserve the tie game. Except, upon closer look, it was fairly clear that the ball had come off the backboard before James got to it and should have been called a goaltend.

LeBron then proceeded to hit the game-winning three on the next possession, but unsurprisingly, much of the talk after the game from the Pacers’ side was about the missed goaltend. Oladipo said he couldn’t even talk about it because he was still upset over the non-call.

Meanwhile, James himself had some fun with the controversy.

Refs missing calls is part of the game, and as Cavs fans are quick to point out, the Pacers were beneficiaries of a questionable call that wasn’t reviewed on the play prior to the block when the ball was knocked out of LeBron’s hands by Thaddeus Young and appeared to hit the baseline before it bounced up and hit LeBron again, caroming out of bounds to give Indiana possession.

Ultimately, things sorted themselves out by way of the three-pointer from LeBron, which would’ve still been a game-winner had Oladipo gotten the goaltend call or not. And, yes, the Pacers maybe would have approached the final possession differently defensively, but even so, that shot from LeBron was fairly insane, and it didn’t really matter what the defense tried to do there.