LeBron James

[Alec]

LeBron looked pretty despondent after his teammates missed 4 straight shots late in the fourth and wilted under the moment. And he hit a couple 3s just to cut the lead.

Doesn’t bode well

 

[The Red Viper]

All I can say is that this clip, that has stuck with me for years, resonates deeply after today's game (from 2:06 onward):

[parsehtml]<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/diFBCa_ivU0?start=126" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/parsehtml]It's not on him. Nor is it solely his responsibility to try to avoid the inevitable. But one has to ask: is LeBron intentionally avoiding the pain and the obvious mark placed on his legacy that losing again in the Finals would bring?

Naa. I don't buy that.

I just feel there are phases in the game where he gets frustrated and just plays halfarsed.

Earlier he could throw Kyrie the ball and have him get a bucket. Get a breather and regain his focus.

But currently, the team is filled with so many beta and passive players, he can't even do that.

 

[The Red Viper]

LeBron looked pretty despondent after his teammates missed 4 straight shots late in the fourth and wilted under the moment. And he hit a couple 3s just to cut the lead.

Doesn’t bode well

And after he cut the lead to 1, Love had a wide open 3. As did JR. We bricked those.

 

[wremy]

Well, he is gone.

I will forever be thankful for 2016.

I kinda feel for him. I do. But wtf was he doing in that 3rd quarter? Was he trying to get others in rhythm? Because he should have just attacked instead of dicking around. May be he was tired. But still doesn't make sense not to attack the paint when everyone in our team had forgotten how to shoot!

LeBron pounded the ball into the f****** ground the entire second half either took terrible jumpers with slow ass white dudes guarding him, picked up his dribble not knowing where he was even going with the ball, turned it over, or passed it to somebody standing at the three-point line with 2 seconds left on the f****** shot clock his second-half performance was f****** atrocious. We needed first quarter game 2 LeBron tonight in the third quarter to put this b**** away before the 4th even started and instead we got first quarter game 1 LeBron and now we're down 2-1 and it's largely his fault tonight... People can look at his numbers but we all know you watch the game he had absolutely no Killer Instinct the entire second half. He didn't drive to the basket more than 3 or 4 times the whole half looking to score and he absolutely killed the good rhythm our offense had in the first half... Honestly can't believe people are on here acting like our Supporting Cast didn't show up again when they got him in this team I 17-point lead 1/2 and he come out and played like a scared b**** the entire second half the Cavs come out with LeBron having a Killer Instinct and win that freaking third quarter by even three or four points and we're up 20 going to the fourth quarter for Christ's sake... Instead he can't seem to get past the slow footed European player guarding him that looks like he has ankle weights on... This game was over and he f***** us this half I don't care what anybody says that performance was f****** scared LeBron it was pathetic... The only thing worse was how little tyloo use George Hill in the second half after he haf such a damn good first half

 

[CTownSportsFan]

LeBron looked pretty despondent after his teammates missed 4 straight shots late in the fourth and wilted under the moment. And he hit a couple 3s just to cut the lead.

Doesn’t bode well

Those 4 missed shots are 100% Lue fault. Along with world hunger

 

[K1rieIrving>AllOtherPG's]

All I can say is that this clip, that has stuck with me for years, resonates deeply after today's game (from 2:06 onward):

[parsehtml]<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/diFBCa_ivU0?start=126" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/parsehtml]It's not on him. Nor is it solely his responsibility to try to avoid the inevitable. But one has to ask: is LeBron intentionally avoiding the pain and the obvious mark placed on his legacy that losing again in the Finals would bring?

Yes I’ve been saying this, and can you really blame him though?

Will you work two months on a hard project carrying your coworkers and your incompetent boss, while also doing all of the actual work when you already know that that project will just get scrapped and tossed aside when you get to the deadline?

Like I said I truly believe LeBron has planned and is executing his plan of going out early in the playoffs because he knows it’s a lost season and the last thing he wants is to get embarrassed and swept in the finals again.

If you look at the game today objectively you could clearly see what LeBron was doing in the 2nd half completely monopolizing the ball and singlehandedly destroying our offense, and like I said I have no problem with it and I understand why he is doing it.

 

[BrutX15]

Just going to be real for a moment... If you're the best player in the world, you do not blow a 17 point lead to the freaking Pacers while being guarded by Bogan Bogdanovic. I can guarantee LeBron knows this, otherwise he might as well be having Kyrie nightmares tonight.

With that being said, the rest of the roster is bad. But that same roster is also who built the 17 point lead for the most part.

No excuses.

 

[Simmy]

Yes I’ve been saying this, and can you really blame him though?

Will you work two months on a hard project carrying your coworkers and your incompetent boss, while also doing all of the actual work when you already know that that project will just get scrapped and tossed aside when you get to the deadline?

Like I said I truly believe LeBron has planned and is executing his plan of going out early in the playoffs because he knows it’s a lost season and the last thing he wants is to get embarrassed and swept in the finals again.

Absolutely don't blame him at all. I'm just wondering if he's accepted his fate and this is now his mind-set as he approaches the remainder of this series.

 

[mhi]

Yes I’ve been saying this, and can you really blame him though?

No.

 

[wremy]

Hard to attack when the shooting isn't providing him the spacing to do it. This ain't the 90s.

We were shooting lights out he had plenty of room to drive the entire third quarter go back and watch the game if you want he chose not to... They didn't start to the lane until sometime in the fourth quarter

 

[The Red Viper]

LeBron pounded the ball into the f****** ground the entire second half either took terrible jumpers with slow ass white dudes guarding him, picked up his dribble not knowing where he was even going with the ball, turned it over, or passed it to somebody standing at the three-point line with 2 seconds left on the f****** shot clock his second-half performance was f****** atrocious. We needed first quarter game 2 LeBron tonight in the third quarter to put this b**** away before the 4th even started and instead we got first quarter game 1 LeBron and now we're down 2-1 and it's largely his fault tonight... People can look at his numbers but we all know you watch the game he had absolutely no Killer Instinct the entire second half. He didn't drive to the basket more than 3 or 4 times the whole half looking to score and he absolutely killed the good rhythm our offense had in the first half... Honestly can't believe people are on here acting like our Supporting Cast didn't show up again when they got him in this team I 17-point lead 1/2 and he come out and played like a scared b**** the entire second half the Cavs come out with LeBron having a Killer Instinct and win that freaking third quarter by even three or four points and we're up 20 going to the fourth quarter for Christ's sake... Instead he can't seem to get past the slow footed European player guarding him that looks like he has ankle weights on... This game was over and he f***** us this half I don't care what anybody says that performance was f****** scared LeBron it was pathetic... The only thing worse was how little tyloo use George Hill in the second half after he haf such a damn good first half

Yeah. LeBron wasn't good today.

I don't think anyone can argue against it.

The thing that we are discussing is why we continued with that shit instead of trying to change stuffs!

 

[The Red Viper]

We were shooting lights out he had plenty of room to drive the entire third quarter go back and watch the game if you want he chose not to... They didn't start to the lane until sometime in the fourth quarter

Naa, they missed shots.

There were shit load of lameass turn-overs which made it worse.

 

[Just1More]

I remember when LBJ was an awesome defender...

 

[JMoneyYourHoney]

Look I'll stand by what I've said about LeBron since '16; thank you for the title, and you're free to go where you want at this point...you won't be resented nearly as much.

That said, you don't get a statue outside the Q after quitting on the team in two separate playoffs. Jersey retired in the rafters, cool. But no fuckin' statue.

 

[PedroFlu]

During the regular season, when some people think he is throwing games, I think he is resting.

But today it was so clear to me that he effectively didn't push to win the game. During the 3rd quarter he saw the ship sinking and simply didn't try to control the game. He had no reason for lack of trying. He had no effort.

And started the 4th the same way.

I don't think he does these things absolutely conscious or with ill intent. I think it's just stronger than him... he knows very well he's going nowhere with this team, not these playoffs and much less after them.

He just lacks the drive to constantly put the necessary effort to carry this team like he did so many times. Probably sick and tired of it.