After leading by as many as 21 points in last night’s Game 3 matchup of the Eastern Conference Finals, the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers dropped their first game of the 2016-17 NBA Playoffs by way of a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Celtics guard Avery Bradley.
There were several storylines in last night’s game, maybe none more glaring than LeBron James‘ stat sheet. In his 45 minutes of playing time, James turned in 11 points (4-of-13 from the field, 0-for-4 from beyond the arc), six assists, six rebounds, one block, and one steal. It was his lowest scoring playoff game since May 28, 2014, when he scored seven points in the conference finals with the Miami Heat against the Indiana Pacers.
The King took full responsibility for his off performance in Game 3, saying: “My performance personally was all on me.” When asked for his takeaway from the game, James said it hurts, but he’s glad it happened the way it did.
Via Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com:
“I think it’s great — what happened hurts,” James said. “It’s a loss in the postseason, but I’m glad it kind of hurt, that it happened the way it did — let our foot off the gas a little bit, didn’t keep the pressure on them like we have been accustomed to.”
“I feel some adversity is all a part of the postseason, James said in closing. “I feel like you have to have some type of adversity to be successful. If it was going to happen, let it happen now. Let’s re-group, and let’s get back to playing desperate basketball, which they did tonight. We gotta be a lot better, for sure.”
Game 4 is set for 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, right back inside Quicken Loans Arena. It’s probably safe to say that James won’t have another “off” night. We’ll just have to wait and see if the Cavs can get back on track.