LeBron James walked into Oracle Arena Thursday night before Game 1 donning a suit and tie with shorts, which should otherwise be known as an indication of how short of help James has received from the Cavaliers roster this season. James finished the night with an astounding 51 points, eight rebounds and eight assists against the best team in basketball, becoming the first player to score 50 in the Finals and lose the game.
James shot 19-of-32 (59 percent), his teammates shot 25-of-67 (37 percent). The starting backcourt of George Hill and J.R. Smith combined for 17 points on 5-of-16 shooting from the floor. Hill missed a potential lead-changing free throw with four seconds left, J.R. Smith lost track of the score and dribbled out to overtime. It’s been a constant theme for LeBron James and the Cavaliers this season, and it just won’t work against these Golden State Warriors.
Sure, the Cavaliers gave a solid effort. It’s the NBA Finals — you wouldn’t expect any other form of participation. But the lack of help surrounding James is obvious, and it’s a danger sign with James’ impending free agency just four weeks away. He doesn’t seem to be having fun anymore. Gone are the days in South Beach, where James seemed legitimately pleased running alongside multiple Hall of Fame players. Gone is Kyrie Irving, who requested a trade from the team last summer.
Reporters asked James for an explanation of J.R. Smith’s blunder after the game — to which James grew fed up and uncharacteristically stormed off from the presser.
“Be better tomorrow,” an agitated LeBron James told the reporter after a brief back-and-forth dialogue between the two.
It’s also the first time in a long time we’ve heard of James complaining about how tired he is. James, who turns 34 later in the year, has now played over 100 straight games. He’s had two fallback options over the last seven years in Dwyane Wade and Kyrie Irving, but now, these Cavaliers can barely afford to play a minute without him.
The goal for this series was set one year ago in the 2017 Finals: Get LeBron James some help. Several free agent signings, trades, replacements and a gutted roster at the NBA’s trading deadline has resulted in the franchise being back to square one — just where they were a year ago to date.
And so the blame gets put on the officiating, just as it always does. The referees didn’t have a perfect game on Thursday, but none of the three refs missed a late-game free throw. Nor did they lose track of time and score. They certainly didn’t try to undercut a Warriors player on a closeout because of some ‘unwritten rule’ (regardless of whether you think a Flagrant 2 was warranted).
“I mean, they called a charge, right?” Lue said on a questionable late-game decision to review a foul involving LeBron James. “And LeBron was clearly four feet outside the restricted area. So it doesn’t make sense to go review something if – the review is if he’s on the line or if he’s close to the charge circle. That’s the review. He wasn’t close. So what are we reviewing? Either call a blocking foul or call an offensive foul.
“For our team to come out and play their hearts out and compete the way we did, man, I mean, it’s bad. It’s never been done before where you know he’s outside the restricted, and then you go there and overturn the call and say it’s a block. It’s never been done in the history of the game. And then in the Finals on the biggest stage, when our team played well, played our a— off, man, it ain’t right. It ain’t right.”
Tyronn Lue has faced significant scrutiny as the Cavs’ coach this season, and faced similar critics following Game 1. His decision to play J.R. Smith (minus-22 rating) for 38 minutes and Kyle Korver (plus-12 rating) for only 16 minutes didn’t sit well with fans. As shown in this Finals preview, Kyle Korver can be a definitive X-Factor in this series. The odds in this preview for Cleveland are not great as is, so giving Jordan Clarkson 17 minutes (which was more than what Korver received) likely didn’t help the team any further.
These coaching decisions aren’t related to officiating, and the same goes for the players — everybody could have done something better. And for Game 2 on Sunday night, that’s all LeBron James can hope happens.
“I don’t know how frustrated I was after a loss in the past,” James said. “I like to live in the present. I think we played as well as we’ve played all postseason, and we gave ourselves a chance possession after possession after possession. There were just some plays that were kind of taken away from us. Simple as that.”
The Cavaliers can steal homecourt advantage on Sunday, but it’s going to require some additional help around James — For these Finals are providing LeBron James his greatest challenge yet, and could wind up providing him his greatest achievement yet should the right players step up in Game 2.
