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LeBron James

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LeShaq said:
Here's his shootaround video from today. Looks and sounds totally locked in, AND he seems confident in the gamplan (which I'm sure involves paying more attention to Marcus Smart).

http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/video/teams/cavaliers/2017/05/23/1495552428102-170523-LBJ-1437975

Can't wait for Game 4.
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I just watched this a minute ago.
With him beeing totally locked in and focused again brought a thought to my mind.

What if part of the Issue was he had gotten too much outside noise and stuff the last few days.. him winning the Citizenship Award wich propably got to his emotions because he cares and does so much.. and the stuff about him not beeing Top 3 in the MVP Voting propably got to him too.. he can say he doesnt care all he wants..

Maybe this was too much stuff he usually actively tries to shut out with "Zero Dark Thirty Mode"

He always was wired like that.. he gets distracted and starts to overthink stuff.. thats what happened 2011(His Whole Villan Role..etc)... thats why he started shutting it out by 2012. He himself knows very well his brain reacts too much to noise.. so he shuts it out.

Beeing maybe a bit too confident after Game 2 and other things will have also played a part..

But overall i think this might have been at least a big Part.
 
BigJ said:
He always was wired like that.. he gets distracted and starts to overthink stuff.. thats what happened 2011
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Yep.

Windy said the other day, after Game 3, that LeBron and his game are "moody."

He just wasn't in a great frame of mind for Game 3.

I think that will change in Game 4.
 
LeShaq said:
Yep.

Windy said the other day, after Game 3, that LeBron and his game are "moody."

He just wasn't in a great frame of mind for Game 3.

I think that will change in Game 4.
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It's kind of crazy how much he wears his emotions right on his sleeve. I didn't see the first three quarters of game 1, but I did see a clip pre-game of LeBron on the bench. It was the most locked-in look I had seen since game 6 in Boston 2012. Just knew that the Cavs were going to come out like gangbusters.

Didn't really see that in game 3, even when the team got up big.
 
Lebron is 32 years old and probably about 35-36 in old school years when players went to college for 3-4 years.

Bad nights like this physically will happen. He just simply could not pull out his punches.
 
Czvosec said:
It's kind of crazy how much he wears his emotions right on his sleeve. I didn't see the first three quarters of game 1, but I did see a clip pre-game of LeBron on the bench. It was the most locked-in look I had seen since game 6 in Boston 2012. Just knew that the Cavs were going to come out like gangbusters.

Didn't really see that in game 3, even when the team got up big.
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Almost like he became disengaged after everyone else was getting their points.
 
Futuredome said:
Lebron is 32 years old and probably about 35-36 in old school years when players went to college for 3-4 years.

Bad nights like this physically will happen. He just simply could not pull out his punches.
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I really dont think so.. He looked completly disengaged. He Mentally was not in the "Agressive" Mindset and when they needed him could not get into a rythm.

If he simply was tired it would have looked like Game 4 in 2015. He still shot 20+ Times he still TRIED.

Tired Lebron is not passive.. he never was. Disengaded,Bored or Distracted Lebron is..

You are right at some Point he will have bad Games because of fatigue but they will not look like last night.

A Tired Lebron does 6/19 on a 19/8/7 Statline or 8/26 on 22/8/5
4/13 for 11/6/6 is just disengaged and not in his right mindset
 
I don't think Lebron would intentionally do something to lose a playoff game.

I could definitely see him not minding the loss and seeing it as a benefit to get to his ultimate goal. Seriously, the whole blow-out hype was way over the top in too many ways and it was creating a mind-set that does not lead to success in the finals. The Cavs and Lebron himself thrive on the bunker mentality, brothers in the same fox-hole, us against the world.

The Cavs suck at being front runners and Lebron knows this better than anyone. He's seen it all season like when the Atlanta subs beat our first team and on multiple other examples.

Griffin said it before, the Cavs are best with their backs against the wall. I would push this a little further to say that when their backs are NOT against the wall this team can not be relied upon to play at anything close to their maximum effort and ability.

Against the GSW we might play our best and still not win the series and the Cavs know this. But the process of stubbing their toe against the Celts this close to the finals is valuable in re-establishing some humility that was quickly disappearing, the idea that every possessions counts, not taking anything for granted, and so forth. Those qualities were totally lacking in Game 3.

That is no guarantee that the team won't slip again in the finals, they very well could. I would say this loss makes it just a little less likely and I would bet that in the big picture Lebron sees that as a good thing.
 
In the second half LeBron had 1 rebound and 1 assist. No points in the final 15 minutes or so. He didn't play badly -- he stunk. We didn't need him to be LeBron -- if he had just grabbed a couple rebounds and made a basket or two, game over. That's not much to ask.

I don't know why he couldn't do anything at all in the second half. Here's my guess:

Games 1 and 2 he looked focused and grimly determined. He had his "death face" on. That isn't something you put on in the dressing room. At his age and with his experience, I suspect he was gearing up for those games at least the day before. It's physical, mental, emotional -- you name it. He was deadly serious.

Game 3 - before the game, he looked relaxed, jovial, and happy. OK, he's coming home, up 2-0, I get it. A poster earlier said he looked like that again at warmups for the second half. Up quite a bit, at home, safe lead -- I get that.

So when Boston came out fighting like Sugar Ray Leonard midway through the 9th round vs. Hagler, LeBron was not ready. He wasn't ready mentally and probably not physically either. As someone who is older (much more so than LeBron) -- it's hard to get started quickly or take it up several notches if you aren't really warmed up and ready. So when he tried to step on the gas - nothing. Engine stalled. Legs said no.

I think LeBron gave himself a 1/2 day off, thinking he could go at 50% and get by. It burned him and the team when it counted. Then I think he was mad at the end of the game -- at himself. He had to know he messed up, which would explain why he was in a foul mood with the fan and Rota.

In retrospect (Monday-morning quarterbacking) it appears that Lue should have sat LeBron down for a few minutes in the second half to allow him to refocus and give the legs a break. Whenever any player is contributing nothing, that's what you do. The Game 7 Finals thread featured many posters criticizing Lue for resting Kyrie for a few minutes midway through the 4th, but that rest may have given Kyrie just enough gas to hit that 3. It's not just gas for the legs but gas for the head.

Obviously all of us Cavalier fans can have no general complaint with LeBron, given his accomplishments including the last two Finals and his magnificent, age-defying first 10 playoff games. We're beyond lucky to have him -- IMHO winning that 2003 lottery, having LeBron come back in 2014 and winning three lotteries in four years ends any general claim of bad luck in Cleveland sports.

But his second half performance in Game 3 was so bad that it cost us a very winnable game. There is a reason (or reasons) why LeBron was so ineffective. Hopefully none of the reasons (and none of us truly know what they were) don't happen again in the series. Game 3 is done -- LeBron stunk in the second half, we lost, it's over, now on to Game 4 and time to have our guy and his team crush these f*cks, because Game 5 will be no picnic in Boston (loud fans + goon players).
 
2 For The Brew said:
In the second half LeBron had 1 rebound and 1 assist. No points in the final 15 minutes or so. He didn't play badly -- he stunk. We didn't need him to be LeBron -- if he had just grabbed a couple rebounds and made a basket or two, game over. That's not much to ask.
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Thank you. This is the part people keep missing here. We didn't need LeBron to "lead the team to victory" we didn't need him to "carry the team like always." We simply needed him to do something productive in an entire fucking half and he couldn't manage to do it for a variety of reasons of which you mentioned. Instead, all we got was missed shots and turnovers. Almost literally. This reflects poorly on one person and that is all.

Looking forward to tonight. Hopefully Game 3 becomes irrelevant.
 
Someone mentioned us fans being lucky. I say this all the time. We just didn't get to have arguably the GOAT ONCE on our team, but TWICE. How rare is that? It's really incredible when you think about it. We got him in two different incarnations as well. The first was the hyper athletic, gravity defying wonderkind and the second iteration is the wise, still pretty damned athletic basketball savant. We truly are blessed as Cavs fans. I feel bad for the idiots who have trouble getting over the decision to not be able to see this, too. But not too much.

Speaking of idiots, anyone here ever frequent the old cleveland.com message board when the lunatic 'Now" and his ultra-moronic son-troll "hahahahahaha" used to incessantly rag on James. The one truly stupid thing that Now vomited was that James would only become a poor man's Dominique Wilkins. LOL...Why that has stayed with me is a mystery, but talk about fun times.
 
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