Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James struggled to find his three-point stroke through the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals. However, in Saturday night’s 116-86 Game 3 win over the Boston Celtics, he knocked down all three of his attempts from beyond the arc.
Just for reference, James went 5-of-11 from downtown in Game 2 of this series. In the five games combined prior to Game 2 (dating back to Cleveland’s semifinal matchup against the Toronto Raptors), James was carrying a 3-of-23 mark from three-point land.
“I shot better,” James told Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com after Monday’s practice session at Cleveland Clinic Courts. “My game isn’t defined by 3s.
“If I make 3s, if I don’t, I’m still capable of helping my team wins games,” James continued. “I’m not a one-dimensional player where if you say, ‘Oh, if you cut his 3s, he’s off and he can’t make plays,’ so that’s an aspect of my game where I’m always going to try to get better to help me personally be as efficient as I can be, even more of a complete basketball player.
“But I mean at the end of whenever, whenever I’m done, I don’t think you guys will be sitting here talking about what a great 3-point shooter I was.”
Though he is recognized as one of the greatest players to have ever dribbled a basketball, James remains honest in his personal assessment. He finished the 2017-18 regular season with a .367 mark from downtown (149-of-406), which isn’t bad at all.
Through Cleveland’s first 14 games of this postseason, the King has racked up averages of 32.9 points (NBA-high) on 54.5 percent shooting from the field (32.4 percent from beyond the arc), 9.4 assists, 8.9 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.1 blocks in 40.6 minutes per.
James and the Cavs will be back in action on Monday night, as they’re scheduled to face the Celtics in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals at 8:30 p.m. EST.
