LeBron James has freed the Cleveland Cavaliers from their mini-crisis with a masterful performance. In the game against the Washington Wizards the fourfold MVP with 57 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists put down its second highest scoring game ever (Career High: 61). Bitter for Cleveland, however, was that the Cavs needed each of these points.
Whether he was surprised to see LeBron James’ dominance so rarely playing 50 point games, was J. R. Smith asked after the game against the ESPN wizards,”Yes and no,”he started his answer:”On the one hand, this is not typical of him: he is a team player who wants to involve everyone. But on the other hand, there are days when you just have to do it yourself. especially when you’re in a crisis like this.”
You wouldn’t suspect that with Hennessy philosopher Smith, but with this statement he summed up James quite well. LeBron is more magic than Jordan during his career, by nature more passport than Scorer – but there are those outbursts. Those “days when you just have to do it yourself.”
Friday was such a day.
The crisis Smith referred to looked like this: the Cavs had lost four games at a time, and in the last six games there had been only one (short) win against the harmless Bulls. The Defense Clevelands was a steaming pile of rubbish, the mood was rotten, the form of some top performers even worse. Even though everyone liked to point out how early in the season it is, coach Tyronn Lue admitted that he couldn’t sleep well anymore.
And then there was the game in Washington – with the slightly grouchy wizards, who are considered one of the potential heirs to the Cavs’ throne in the East and even claimed Cleveland was lucky enough to get out of their way in the last few playoffs.”That’s funny,”Smith said.
He knew how important this game was for us,”said Dwyane Wade, following on from his best friend in the league,” After the four defeats in a row, he took us on his shoulders today “.
That’s how you put it. LeBron was hot from the start, scoring 23 of his 34 field goals – and the throws hit were even a career high. For this, he hit all nine free throws. James played 43 minutes out of 48, including the entire second half, because Washington did not let themselves shake off despite his performance.
“At the end of the third quarter, he came to the bank and I asked him if he needed a short break. He refused,”said Lue,”We saw that he felt good. He carried us.”
The wizards didn’t even defend him badly, but James was in the same zone where he was in game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2012, for example, when he scored 45 points in Boston,”It feels like every roll of the dice goes in,”James described the feeling himself,”Even those who were defended tightly. I just had my eyes fixed on the target and tried to stay disciplined with my throw and my balance.”
James had said about a week ago that he was “out of shape”. After Kobe Bryant, he became the second player to play in his 15th season. Season or later, scored 50 points in a game. He is of course also the youngest player in history to have cracked the 29,000 point mark.
“I’ve never felt so good in my career,”said the 32-year-old after the game,”I may not get younger, but I feel younger than ever. I did what I had to do today.”
Wizards coach Scott Brooks was also astonished:”We have seen one of the best players here that ever existed or will exist,” says Brooks. We knew that. We tried everything, but he just couldn’t be stopped. You can only pat him on the shoulder and check off the lot. Great game, incredible player.”
It was also interesting to see how LeBron scored his 57 points, but his eleven 50-point games were usually played on days when his threesome was on point: on average, he scored five threesomes in these games. Against Washington, on the other hand, there were only two – LeBron caused most of his damage in the post office.
Uncompromisingly, James took his physically weaker opponents (all of them) back and forth again and again and scored. 14 goals James ended up scoring in the Restricted Area, scoring 70 percent of his throws after post-ups (via ESPN Stats & Info).”Many would love to see that from him all the time, wouldn’t they?”, Wade asked rhetorically after the game.
James has been following this criticism since his early Cleveland years,”You ask yourself: Why doesn’t he always do that? But that’s an extreme effort. And he usually plays outside because he’s a pass-first player. But today he knew that no one could defend him and we needed him,”Wade added,”LeBron dominates every game. But if he plays like that, if he’s got a rhythm, no one can stop him.”
That is correct – and that is no secret. LeBron has been much more interested in the playoffs for a long time now, but he can also show in the regular season that the best player in the world (still) plays in Cleveland.
Nevertheless, no one should expect him to rewind these performances night after night.
Wade mentioned it:”The effort is too much. LeBron may be one of the biggest physical freaks in the history of sport, but he is also dependent on at least a little bit of his strength. The fact that the Cavs were only able to beat Washington to a razor-sharp victory despite this performance showed that their numerous problems are far from being solved.
For this one day, however, it was LeBron again, who concealed all these problems with a game for eternity:”I was just glad that I was on his team,”was Derrick Rose’s surprise, too,”It was a hell of an achievement. If at all, you can only learn from it and try to let everything work for you. With such an accomplishment, you can see how he got to where he is now.”
On Mount Olympus. Even if his team is far from it right now.