Fred VanVleet wanted LeBron James to know he’s not backing down from the best player in the league, and he showed him just that with a silly, minor altercation halfway through the second quarter.
Fred VanVleet tried to get physical with LeBron James. It didn’t work so well.
James just straight up big brother’d him.
VanVleet bumped James twice, the second time shoving him towards the baseline. It was fairly ordinary stuff — the referees called a foul, which isn’t a real surprise, but it certainly wasn’t flagrant or even really approaching that level.
All this really shows is exactly what VanVleet said before the series started — even if James’ reaction is almost like that of a big brother rolling their eyes at their little bro when he gets feisty.
This moment happened before the kerfuffle, but I’m going to pretend that Drake and James were sharing a laugh about this.
