Another year running with LeBron
Cavs edge Raptors with classic display by unstoppable force
So, Kyle, were you watching when LeBron James dragged Cleveland back from a 3-1 NBA final deficit against a 73-win team? You were, right? Well, what did you think?
“It’s LeBron,” says Kyle Lowry, shrugging. “It’s simple as that. Nothing he does surprises me. He’s LeBron James.”
Well sure, but LeBron averaged 36.3 points, 11.7 rebounds, 9.3 assists, three steals and three blocks in those last three games. He was a force of some kind of nature. He gathered all his talent, all his experience, and all his will, and he unleashed it. Had you ever seen him do that?
“Did you watch the finals the year before?” says Lowry.
Yeah, yeah. It’s six straight now. The last time the NBA final didn’t involve LeBron James, it involved Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu, before Hedo’s unpleasantness here. Now, the Cavaliers have a $100-million starting five, and the Canadian centre is dating a Kardashian, and the point guard could be a future MVP (according to Toronto’s point guard, and others), and . . .
It’s LeBron. Like Lowry said. It’s LeBron. Before Friday night’s rematch of the Eastern Conference final, all anyone could talk about was the best player in the game. How to stop him. How to slow him down. How good he was. How great.
And then the Cavaliers played the classic star-comes-to-town game: let your teammates work, wait until the end of a close game, make the plays to decide it. Toronto forced LeBron and Kyrie Irving to log 38 minutes, but that mostly meant they won it in the 38th. Cavaliers 94, Raptors 91.
“LeBron made the right pass, and Kyrie made the big shot,” said Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue. “LeBron’s mad, Kyrie’s mad when they have to come out, so we just had to gauge (their minutes). It was a game that we wanted to win, that our guys wanted to win, they wanted to make a statement on (Toronto’s) home floor, second game of the season. And tomorrow we’ll get their minutes down whether they like it or not.”
It was nice that Cleveland took the game that seriously, I guess. That they used a lineup with LeBron at centre for stretches that they had not practised before — “We haven’t worked on it, so it kind of had us in disarray a little bit, but we just had to figure it out,” said Lue — was less complimentary. Cleveland isn’t just chasing wins this year, per se.
“Finishing first should be a life priority, you want to finish first in everything,” said LeBron. “But for us, if we’re put in that position, we would love to have the extra game on our home floor for our fans; if not, like two years ago, we can go into someone else’s building and take care of business if need be. We just want to work on our habits.”
Accordingly, LeBron played big minutes, but also appeared to be both teaching a man to fish, and saving his legs. He let Irving and Kevin Love combine for 28 first-half points, and a 10-point lead; he didn’t add much as DeMar DeRozan and then Jakob Poeltl — Jakob Poeltl! — got Toronto close, and kept them close. With 3:30 left, it was tied at 86.
And after that, LeBron found Tristan Thompson for an alley-oop dunk; drove and passed to an open Love for a three-pointer that Love missed: drew two free throws on a drive and made one; got to an offensive rebound and made two free throws; settled for a three-pointer that he missed; and finally, with the game tied at 91, drove and found Irving wide, wide open for a three. Like the championship-winning shot in June, Irving buried it.
LeBron finished with 21 points on 7-of-16 shooting, eight rebounds, seven assists and five turnovers. He wasn’t great until he had to be. Cleveland may have wanted to beat this Raptors team, but LeBron wasn’t willing to — and didn’t need to — force the game to make it happen. Afterwards, in the Cavs locker room, he and J.R. Smith gleefully exchanged lines from The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air and Martin, two of their favourite TV shows, sometimes delivering the lines in unison. Two games down, six months to go.
“He’s one of the best ever to do it, and he will be once he retires, but until that day he’s someone I’m trying to beat,” said Lowry, who had a down game. “It’s a long year, so we’ll find out when the time comes.”
The NBA can feel inevitable, even if it’s not.
Before the game, LeBron was talking about things he wanted to do, after calling the World Series a bucket-list event for him. He said he’d go to the Kentucky Derby or an F1race in Monaco, but 12 straight years of the playoffs has precluded both. He talked about college football stadiums he’d like to see. He was asked about attending the running of the bulls in Pamplona. He said, “Will I run with the bulls, what does that mean? You talking about (Dwyane Wade)? I was gonna say, don’t start that, man. No, I’m not running with no damn bulls.”
LeBron isn’t retiring yet. In some ways, all the rest of the East can do is wait.