Just a week ago Draymond Green was calling LeBron James a b*tch, Klay Thompson was talking about LeBron’s feelings getting hurt and Marreese Speights was tweeting baby bottles at the four-time MVP. Life comes at you especially fast in the NBA Finals.
No one’s disrespecting LeBron James anymore
The Warriors poked the bear after Game 4. They have paid dearly for it since.
LeBron followed up his Game 5 Rembrandt with a Game 6 Picasso. He finished with 41 more points, plus 11 assists, eight rebounds, four steals, three blocks and, most importantly, the win. Per ESPN Stats & Info, from the middle of the third until garbage time, the Cavaliers scored 36 points. LeBron scored or assisted on 35 of them.
It was the purest form of LeBron you’ll ever see. He settled for stagnancy and long jumpers a couple of times at the end of the third and looked a bit gassed, but the intermission was all he needed to come back fierce. No one in the game -- no one since Jordan, Magic and Bird -- can play like this. Throwing alley-oops, finishing alley-oops, torturing Andre Iguodala in the post, smothering Draymond Green, swatting Stephen Curry and being everywhere every second.
Other guys, including three Warriors, have proven they can grab a wild game by its horns and twist it under their control. A handful of other NBA stars can do the same. LeBron goes further, latching on to the game and riding it wherever he goes. Klay and Steph exert their overwhelming wills by shooting, Draymond with defense and passing. Kevin Durant does it by scoring, Russell Westbrook does it by flying. LeBron does it 20 different ways at the same time.
LeBron has clearly played differently since the end of Game 4, during which Green dropped some particularly angering trash talk and made a retaliatory swipe at James’ groin. LeBron looked furious in the moment, yelling at Green and snipping at Curry a moment later. He put on a cool face in the interview room and took his anger out on the Warriors on the court. 82 points in two games. No one’s calling LeBron a b*tch anymore.
LeBron essentially ended the game with his smothering block on Curry with just under five minutes left. After knocking the ball out of bounds with detectable glee, LeBron sang Steph a lullaby. The Cavs were up 13. On the next possession, Steph fouled out, screamed at the officials and fired his mouthpiece at a courtside fan. Cleveland piled on from there; we were officially in garbage time two minutes later.
That aggressive attitude is something LeBron keeps in reserve for special moments. He’ll no doubt claim the Warriors didn’t get under his skin, that he was just fired up about Cleveland’s success of late. That’s hard to believe. He has a little special scorn for these Warriors right now, and Steph is the figurehead LeBron loves to take his anger out on the most. The Cavaliers have been relentlessly trying to punish Curry on defense by calling screens involving his match-up. When LeBron gets Curry on him in this series, he doesn’t always capitalize. Sometimes, it legitimately looks like he has a sensory overload from all of his options. But in Game 6, he did.
The Warriors aren’t dead yet. They’re going home to Oakland, where Draymond will receive a hero’s welcome and Curry is likely to see more favorable treatment from the officials after a few days of lobbying. The Warriors aren’t ever dead until they’re buried, and even then you might want to put a boulder over the grave (ask the Thunder). LeBron is playing as well as any human has ever played in the NBA Finals right now, and to expect continued godliness from any man is unwise and unfair.
But right now, we are all witnesses to indelible greatness from the best player of his generation. It’s hard to bet against LeBron James right now.
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LeBron looking to improve his NBA Finals legacy
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