LeBron: I’d pass again
CLEVELAND — To the average fan, LeBron James drove in the final minute and passed the ball to Kyle Korver, who shot and missed a 3-pointer that might have sealed Game 3 for the Cavaliers.
LeBron James saw it just a bit differently. Suffice it say, with a little more detail and analysis.
“If I could have the play over again, I would come off a three-screen situation,” James said. “Draymond [Green] would switch on me with five fouls. I would get him leaning. I would drive left. I would see KD [Kevin Durant] step up. I would see Stephen Curry drop on Kevin. And I would see Kyle Korver in the corner, one of the greatest 3-point shooters in this league’s history, and give him an opportunity in the short corner. I would do the same exact thing.”
So there. And that was a little better than, “LeBron shoulda shot, but he passed.”
James simply shrugged off the criticism for his decision to pass in the final minute of the Cavs’ devastating 118-113 Game 3 loss to the Warriors, a defeat that left them on the very brink. The Warriors now lead the Finals, 3-0, and no team, in 12 previous Finals circumstances, ever has rallied from a 3-0 deficit.
In fact, in NBA playoffs history, none of the 126 teams that have faced a 3-0 deficit have ever rallied to win the series.
So James had more to worry about than some criticisms that he passed on shooting.
“I don’t even really care. I had a 101 drives last night,“James said tongue-in-cheek. “I didn’t have 101, but you get the gist of it. I’m sorry I didn’t go for 102. But at the end of the day, what is a critic? It doesn’t matter.”
James has been slapped before, he’ll get slapped again. Trying to figure out a way to get the Cavs back to Oakland, Calif., for a Game 5 is all that matters. That’s the task for Friday’s Game 4.
“If we come in with the same energy, same effort, physicality, as we did in Game 3, we give ourselves a good chance to win. Now, does that result in a win? It’s to see. Because we played well in Game 3, and they were able to get that one as well,” said James, averaging a Finals triple-double of 32.0 points, 12.3 rebounds and 10.3 assists.