On Tuesday, for the first time in LeBron James’ career, his team did not lead in the first four quarters and still managed to win. After making 21st career playoff triple-double with 13 assists, 26 points, and 11 rebounds in 47 minutes to steal Game 1 of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Eastern Conference semi-finals series against the Toronto Raptors 113-112, he credited his team for carrying him to win the game.
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James said that his teammates were unbelievable in the Tuesday’s game and stepped up when he was not at his best.
The place where James fell short was with his shooting accuracy. He shot 12for-30 from the field and 1-for-6 from the foul line and packed most of his miss into the crunch time, shooting just 3 for 15 in the fourth quarter and overtime combined.
According to ESPN Stats & Information research, the 12 missed shots are the most ever James had made in the fourth quarter or the overtime of a playoff game. James said that he was not as efficient as he would have liked to be. He missed a lot of open looks, a lot of open 3s that the team was going under, he said. Due to the injury he suffered in Game 7, he did not have the opportunity to get on the court on Tuesday and Monday morning as well but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is to try and win, he further added.
James later described Game 1 against Toronto as probably one of his worst games of the season. It was in stark contrast that Cleveland got the win in the first round against the Indiana Pacers in light of James’ off night shooting when it took him averaging 41.8 points in the four wins to move to the next round.
