James: ‘I gave everything I had tonight’

CLEVELAND – LeBron James made it clear on Wednesday: He couldn’t have done any more to beat the Warriors.

He repeated it four times following the 118-113 defeat that put the Cavs in an impossible 3-0 hole, when he scored 39 points but missed all three of his shots in the final 3:45 as his team collapsed.

“For me personally, I gave everything I had tonight. So win, lose, or draw, you live with the results,” James said.

Asked if there’s anything he could do differently, James said, “I gave everything that I had to this game, so I don’t look at it saying I wish I could have did this or I would have did that. I left it out on the floor.”

To a large degree, James was right. But James’ complimenting himself also felt like a thinly-veiled shot at his disappearing teammates and the lack of depth on the roster compared to Golden State’s. LeBron scored 39 points and fell an assist short of a triple-double, getting no help Wednesday except from Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith. His other six teammates who played combined for 20 points on 4-for-24 shooting. Kevin Love missed eight of his nine field goal attempts. But when the Cavs desperately needed points to stop the bleeding, James missed a lay-up, a turnaround fadeaway and a potential game-tying 3-pointer that was stripped by Andre Igoudala.

“We missed shots. I gave everything that I had, so at times throughout the game I was tired, but that’s just because I was just playing as hard as I could,” said James, who hit 15 of his 27 shots.

Unfortunately for LeBron, there’s nothing the Cavs can do to improve the roster before Game 4 on Friday. But there have been two notable players who have looked overwhelmed throughout these Finals – backup point guard Deron Williams and starting center Tristan Thompson. On Wednesday, they combined for zero points. “Me personally, I mean, obviously it’s physically and emotionally draining because I give everything to the game and want to put myself and my teammates in a position to be successful,” James said. “So I lay it all on the floor, and I did that tonight, gave everything that I had, both mentally and physically. So obviously I’m drained right now, ready to get home.”