‘Burnt’ LeBron isn’t toast
Cavaliers survive scare from Pacers to set up showdown with Raptors
CLEVELAND— LeBron James wasn’t ready to go home or to Philadelphia or Los Angeles.
He’s heading to Toronto, bringing a Cavaliers team that isn’t done yet.
Unwilling to sit despite battling leg cramps in the second half, James scored 45 points and got some much-needed help from his teammates in Game 7 to stay unbeaten in the opening round of the NBA playoffs, leading the Cavaliers to a 105-101 win on Sunday over the Indiana Pacers.
An exhausted James said the series took a physical toll.
“I’m burnt right now,” he said. “I’m not thinking about Toronto right now until tomorrow. I’m ready to go home. Can we? I’m tired. I want to go home.”
James added nine rebounds, seven assists and played more than 43 minutes while improving to 13-0 in the first round. It took everything the 33-year-old and the Cavs had to hold off the Pacers.
But James pulled the Cavs back from the brink of elimination and at least delayed any more talk about impending free agency. James is expected to opt out of his contract in July to test the market and there’s already a line of teams stretching from Philly to L.A. looking to sign the three-time champion.
“Amazing,” Indiana’s Victor Oladipo said of James. “He did what he always does. It’s not really shocking. He’s the best in the world, and that’s what the best does and now I gotta work to get on that level.”
The Cavs will open the conference semifinal on Tuesday against the top-seeded Toronto Raptors.
Nothing was going to keep James off the floor in what some Cleveland fans feared could have been his last game with the franchise.
“It felt like a Game 7,” he said. “It was like, your mind is thinking like, ‘OK, besides the two I played in the Finals, you start thinking like, is this it? Could this be it?’ That’s just human nature. And then the other side of my brain was like, ‘Let’s go make something happen. Let’s go, that’s what you here for. You’re here to make plays, you’re the leader.’ ”
The Cavs got a huge lift from Brampton native Tristan Thompson, who added 15 points and 10 rebounds. Kevin Love made four 3-pointers and George Hill returned after missing three games with back spasms to score 11 in 19 secondhalf minutes.
Oladipo scored 30 and Darren Collison had 23 for the Pacers.
“Honestly, I think we were the better team, and they had the best player in the world,” Pacers forward Trevor Booker said.