LeBron James breaks hearts
Leonard Fournette Jersey , shatters dreams and delivers joy all in one breath. He carries one city, crushes the other.
With mind-blowing ease, James can take over a quarter, a game, a series, a season and make it his own. His terms.
After being criticized earlier in his career – it seems laughable now – for not being clutch or taking the big shot, James has become the NBA’s pre-eminent
closer, the player best equipped to handle pressure and produce excellence when
everything is on the line.
Crunch time? He’s captain crunch. Tom Brady in the two-minute drill. Muhammad Ali in the 15th round. Mariano Rivera in the ninth. The fat lady.
It’s over when James says so.
James added to his growing legacy for breathtaking finishes on Saturday night by banking in a shot high off the backboard at the buzzer to give the Cleveland
Cavaliers a 105-103 win in Game 3 of their semifinal series against the Toronto
Raptors, who had the closest view of a moment that all but ended their
season.
Dribbling the length of the floor while outmaneuvering a Toronto defense designed to stop him, James got to a spot where he felt comfortable, rose off
his left foot and with his right hand softly dropped a shot he’s practiced
hundreds of times for this kind of moment.
”That’s just who he is,” said Cavs center Kevin Love.
On the official play-by-play sheet, James’ shot was listed as: ”L.James 10' Driving Bank Shot.”
It was so much more. It was the 33-year-old’s second game-winner of these playoffs, coming 10 days after he hit a fadeaway 3-pointer in Game 5 in a
first-round series to down an Indiana Pacers team that had him on the ropes but
couldn’t knock him out.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, James has made five go-ahead shots in the final five seconds of regulation or overtime in the playoffs – two more than
Michael Jordan – and he might not be done.
His late-game heroics have become so common that coach Tyronn Lue’s only instructions during late timeouts is to pick which player is going to pass it to
James.
”You just get the ball to `Bron at the end of the game, he has been producing for us all season, his whole career
Adidas Jonathan Quick Jersey ,” Lue said Sunday as the Cavaliers got ready for Monday’s Game 4. ”If the game is tied or the game is on the line, we got a
great person to go to down the stretch.”
Before the playoffs began, the Cavaliers, who are finally meshing after months of upheaval, were 38-0 when leading after three quarters. Following
practice last month, James was asked if there was a reason for the team’s
ability to preserve fourth-quarter leads.
”’Cause we got a closer,” he said, with zero hesitation.
Big shots. Timely blocks. Perfect passes.
James has done it at both ends in the waning moments of games all season for a team that has only four holdovers from its 2016 title squad. Like he does
every year, James has elevated his game in the postseason. He’s averaging 34.8
points, his highest in the playoffs since 2009, with 9.5 rebounds and a
career-best 8.8 assists.
The statistics, though, are only part of it.
In his last three home games, James has made two last-second shots and scored 45 points in a win-or-else Game 7.
”Right now, he’s just relishing these moments,” forward Kyle Korver said. ”He’s been amazing. I think we are expecting him to win the game in the end when
it’s close. We feel like he’s going to make the plays. He’s just done it so many
times this year. He makes the right read, he makes the right play
Jake Dotchin Jersey , he makes the shot. It’s been impressive to watch.”
Lue has seen another player like James: He was Kobe Bryant’s teammate in Los Angeles. James and Bryant share plenty of physical traits with other players,
but it’s the intangibles that separate the scorers and playmakers from the
difference makers.
”They want the ball,” Lue said. ”They’re always able to will their team to a win, a victory, making the right pass or play or making the big shot. It’s their
will to win and making everyone better.”
And while it’s true that James has carried the Cavaliers for most of his 11 seasons with them, he’s had to shoulder a heavier burden over the past 92 games.
When Cleveland relented to All-Star guard Kyrie Irving’s trade demand and
shipped him to Boston, it left the team without another proven scorer capable of
closing.
It’s not that Love or Korver or J.R. Smith can’t make a big shot in a tough spot when called upon, it’s that James relishes the responsibility of being the
one to take it – or defer if the situation demands.
In Miami, James turned to Dwyane Wade down the stretch for help. He doesn’t have that same luxury in Cleveland, but it’s not stopping him.
As he powered up the floor in the final seconds of Game 3, there was no doubt by the Raptors, the Cavaliers or the 20,000 fans at Quicken Loans Arena who was
going to take the last shot.
The closer.
—
NEW ORLEANS — The playoffs essentially began a month ago for both the New Orleans Pelicans (47-34) and the San Antonio Spurs (47-34).
While both teams have clinched Western Conference playoff spots, Wednesday night’s regular-season finale at the Smoothie King Center is the finish line in
a marathon race for playoff seeding.
Unless Memphis pulls off a monster upset and defeats the Oklahoma City Thunder on the road Wednesday, the Pelicans, currently the fifth seed, would
finish anywhere from the fourth Kerryon Johnson Color Rush Jersey , fifth or sixth seed with a victory over the Spurs. The Pelicans would drop to the eighth seed with a loss, setting up a
first-round matchup with the No. 1 Houston Rockets.
The Spurs also could fall anywhere from the fourth to the eighth seed, given a myriad of possibilities.
The only solace for Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is that the Spurs, playing most of the season without All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard, have made the
playoffs for the 21st consecutive season. That streak is 11 years longer than
Popovich’s nearest competitor, Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat.
“Oh, it’s wonderful,” Popovich said, using his characteristic deadpan delivery Monday night after the Spurs clinched their playoff spot with a 98-85
victory over Sacramento.
“They deserve a lot of credit, done a great job,” Popovich said of his players. “I’m real proud of them.”
The Pelicans have won four consecutive games to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2015. Coach Alvin Gentry said there are so many possible
playoff matchups that he wants his team to focus on what it can control.
“We’re just going to do the best we can do (to beat the Spurs), and whoever we play, we play,” Gentry said. ‘We just want to continue to play good
basketball.”
The Pelicans’ four-game winning streak could not have been timelier, and forward Anthony Davis has been the catalyst during the streak. Davis, who has
made the playoffs only once in his five NBA seasons, said he was proud the
Pelicans did not collapse after the season-ending Achilles injury to center
DeMarcus Cousins on Jan. 26.
“A lot of people counted us out when he went down Youth Troy Apke Jersey , but we just kept fighting, changed the way we play a little bit,” Davis said. “We believed in ourselves — all the guys in this
locker room. We just wanted to make sure no matter what happens with anybody
else — that we were in. This whole road trip we came out aggressive.”
The Pelicans have won two of three against San Antonio this season, winning 107-90 at home on Nov. 22 and 121-116 in San Antonio on Feb. 28 and losing 98-93
in San Antonio on March 15. Davis had averaged 25.3 points on .509 shooting and
13.3 rebounds in the three games, while the Spurs have been led by Dejounte
Murray with 16.7 points, including .667 from 3-point range and 8.0 rebounds.
The Spurs said Leonard would not be available to play against the Pelicans as he returns from a season-long quad injury.
Pelicans point guard Rajon Rondo, who delivered an off-the-backboard assist to Davis for a thunderous, one-handed dunk against the Los Angeles Clippers on
Monday night, said he likes what he sees in New Orleans’ recent play.
“I think if we come in with the right focus, the right mindset — obviously, you’ve got to make some shots — we can beat anyone,” Rondo said. “We know that
as a team.”
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