Since coming back to the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James has been the heart and soul of the team, but this year he has had to take even on a bigger role.
According to Micah Adams, LeBron James has scored or assisted on 55% percent of the Cavaliers points this postseason, which is his highest total ever going into the NBA Finals. His previous high was in 2007 with the Cavaliers when he accounted for 49 percent of the teams scoring.
Even with James accounting for so much of the offense, and the media constantly bashing on the Cavaliers role players, James went out of his way after Game 7 to defend them. In his postgame interview with Doris Burke, he reminded everyone how important teammates are.
“I think what people don’t understand, people that never played the game of basketball and never played team sports, is that in order to succeed, it has to be a team effort. I know I get a lot of the headlines — win, lose or draw, whatever the case may be — but in order to be successful, it’s a team game. I learned that from since I first started picking up a basketball to play organized basketball at age 9. So, you get all the doubters and people — who have never stepped in an arena, who’s never played basketball, who’s never put on a tank-top and shorts, who’ve never played anything organized — always want to try and kill my teammates. It’s unfair to them. But I’ll always stay true to the game of basketball because the game of basketball always stays true to me. That’s why we’re going to another Finals because my teammates played a hell of a game.”
In Game 7, it was his teammates and especially Jeff Green that stepped up to the occasion. In the NBA Finals, they are going to be key if they want to have any success.