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Cometh the hour, cometh the man. When his team needed him most, LeBron James obliged as the Cleveland Cavaliers tied their Eastern conference semi-finals series with the Chicago Bulls at 2-2, after LeBron’s buzzer beater gave the Cavs a 86-84 win over the Bulls at the United Center.
The Cavs head back to Cleveland for a crucial Game 5 with home-court advantage back in their favour, on the back of 25 points, 14 rebounds and 8 assists from LeBron.
To put it simply, LeBron’s buzzer beater was incredible. Catch, turn and shoot with 0.8 seconds on the clock and the scores locked at 84-84 apiece.
It was vintage LeBron as the King sunk the dagger that won the game and put his team right back into contention in the series. But if we look beyond the absurdity of LeBron’s gamewinner and his impressive stat line, the Cavs may be in trouble and so is LeBron.
Although James put up a 25-14-8 split, he shot just 30% from the field and for the second straight game the King had more than seven turnovers.
Even more alarming is that LeBron is shooting just over 10% from the three point line, having just made two three’s from 19 attempts. The statistics are worrying, even for the most optimistic of Cavs fans, but the fact remains that the Cavaliers are now tied at 2-2 and are heading into Game 5 with homecourt advantage intact.
As hard as the Cavs tried to self-sabotage their Game 4 win, highlighted by a two-timeout, offensive foul induced meltdown, that saw Derrick Rose tie the game at 84-84, the Cavs won the game on the back of an excellent performance from the free-throw line which saw Cleveland shoot 23-24 from the charity stripe.
Cleveland made the most of their free throw opportunities converting more than twice as many free throws as the home side and it was just reward for what I’m sure is the fruits of countless of hours of practicing free throws, but unfortunately for Cleveland that percentage is not sustainable.
With Kevin Love out for the series and Kyrie Irving clearly hobbled, James has been forced to take on a bigger burden while in the middle of a shooting slump. So far they have survived, and Cleveland could have easily been one missed Derrick Rose buzzer beater away from heading back to Cleveland with a 3-1 lead.
Taking nothing away from LeBron’s teammates as Tristan Thompson, JR Smith and Iman Shumpert are all performing at higher levels than originally anticipated, but at this stage the Cavaliers will only go as far as LeBron takes them.
If the Bulls are at full health and can get Pau Gasol back for Game 5, they should have enough to dispose of the Cavaliers. They have great interior and perimeter defence, a good bench, multiple ball handlers and have good outside shooting.
The re-emergence of Derrick Rose is real, and his combination with Jimmy Butler is flourishing, but having said that, if there’s one NBA player you would hitch your wagon to to carry a team through the playoffs, it’d probably be LeBron James.
James has proven time and time again that he is more than capable of coming up big when it counts and putting the team on his back, and if he can reduce the turnovers and make even a quarter of his three’s, the Cavaliers could return to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time this decade.
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