A WINE & GOLD WALKOFF WINNER pic.twitter.com/WjzmLrBTsl
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 8, 2018
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.”
LeBron walks reporters through that last play pic.twitter.com/dj3g6WZbNZ
— Ashley Bastock (@AshleyBastock42) February 8, 2018
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.
LeBron on passing Zydrunas Ilgauskas to lead the franchise in rebounds. pic.twitter.com/hcFO5JhFkf
— Ashley Bastock (@AshleyBastock42) February 8, 2018
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.”
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