Connect with us

Cavaliers

The King beats the buzzer as the Cavs get a much-needed lift; three takeaways

1. The King’s court

LeBron James was in vintage form on Wednesday night, as he hit the game-winning jumper over Jimmy Butler with one second remaining in overtime.

The shot came after James blocked a potentially game-winning attempt from Jimmy Butler with 1.3 seconds remaining. After J.R. Smith caught the ball, he called a crucial timeout, giving the Cavs a chance to draw up a play.

James caught a long pass from Jeff Green, and created some separation from Butler near the foul line to give himself plenty of room to knock down the shot. So what exactly was the King thinking in the moment?

“I was thinking about I don’t want to go to another overtime, that’s what I was thinking about. I’m 33 years old and I did not want to do another overtime,” he joked. “But that was a heck of a pass, a heck of a play call by (head coach Tyronn) Lue and I was able to benefit from both.”

James went on to breakdown the play even further.

“Obviously in the past, you know that would be Kevin Love making that entry pass, but with Jeff being as strong as he is and a pretty accurate passer, T-Lue drew up something great. They couldn’t take a body off Kyle (Korver) and I was able to get a good rip screen and just try to sit down, not allow Jimmy to get around me, and once I caught it, just trust it. I’ve trusted everything I’ve done in my career, and that’s just the work ethic I’ve put into it and I was able to knock it down.”

James ended the night with a triple-double thanks to a game-high 37 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds. With his eighth rebound of the night, James also passed Zydrunas Ilgauskas (5,904) for most rebounds in Cavs’ franchise history in the opening minutes of the fourth. He’s now one of just three players to lead a franchise in points, rebounds and assists, along with Michael Jordan and Kevin Garnett.

He may have had a subpar stretch of recent games by his standards, but tonight, LeBron James put the team on his back.

“I thought he carried us tonight offensively, playing with pace, making the right play, getting shooters shots, getting downhill, getting into the paint, making his 3-point shot, taking it and rebounding the basketball,” Lue said. “He made three big plays for us. The big 3, the big block on Butler and the turnaround jump shot at the end. He was great. The way we’ve been playing, we needed that tonight, he was very special.”

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Ashley is a former basketball player who covers the Cleveland Cavaliers, Indians and high school sports for NEO Sports Insiders. She also covers the Cavs for SB Nation's Fear The Sword. Ashley is a 2015 graduate of John Carroll University and previously worked in political journalism. You can follow her on Twitter @AshleyBastock42

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 
Advertisement

Facebook

Archives

Categories

Show Your Team Spirit

NEO Sports Insiders Newsletter

Sign up to receive our NEOSI newsletter, and keep up to date with all the latest Cleveland sports news.

Recent Comments

Meta

More in Cavaliers