The series between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Detroit Pistons has gotten chippy and physical, but how can you not be with LeBron James. The Pistons have been super physical with LeBron in the wake of their playoff series, but some may say that Andre Drummond went a little too far in terms of physicality with an elbow to the head (Via Ximo Pierto Final).
Drummond didn’t receive any discipline for that and Tryonn Lue compares that to treatment a former teammate of his, Shaquille O’Neal had received. Shaq would get pushed around and slapped up in the paint because it’s kind of hard to guard a 300 pound 7’0 center. Lue explains that the same thing applies to LeBron, according to Dave McMenamin:
“He’s the Shaq of guards and forwards,” Lue said before the Cavs held shootaround Sunday morning in preparation for Game 4 of their first-round series with the Detroit Pistons, which Cleveland leads 3-0. “He’s so strong and so physical, when he goes to the basket guys are bouncing off of him. Those are still fouls, but he doesn’t get that call because he’s so big and so strong and so physical.
“We used to tease Shaq all the time about soft fouls. He said, ‘Listen, if I pinch you it feels the same way when you pinch me. No matter how big I am, it feels the same.’ I never thought about it like that. That’s kind of how LeBron feels.”
LeBron also felt that Drummond should have been penalized and expressed his thoughts after the game:
LeBron on Drummond not being penalized after Game 3: “Initially I was surprised but then I thought who he did it to and I wasn’t surprised”
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 24, 2016
When you look at it that way, LeBron gets absolutely destroyed when he tries to run into the paint sometimes and it doesn’t get called. On the other hand, there are some seriously questionable calls that are made the other way when people are defending LeBron. That’s what makes it so difficult to officiate LeBron James and difficult to stop LeBron James. The Cavaliers look to finish off the series tonight at 8:30 in Detroit.
