SAN FRANCISCO – On the night before the greatest game of his playoff career – and one of the greatest of anyone’s career – LeBron James was shooting hoops with his sons, LeBron Jr., 11, and Bryce, who just turned nine.
It was not going well.
"I actually had a competitive shooting game with my sons," James said. "You know, we were shooting baskets last night between myself and my two boys, which ended up not going so well for me at times. You know, those guys have home-court advantage over me."
In another set of circumstances the anecdote would be a perfect set up, like: James can’t even win against his kids in June!
Or: Even James’ kids know the old man can’t shoot!
The issues are related. James’ struggles shooting the ball have been his Achilles heel the past two seasons and it’s been magnified this time of the year when the spotlight shines brightest and never more than against the Golden State Warriors. It’s a flaw that has allowed opponents to at least believe the force he plays with can be blunted. The Warriors’ posse of long, agile defenders held James – who shot a remarkable 55 per cent from the field and 39 per cent from three in his last two seasons with the Miami Heat – to just 41 per cent from the field and 27 per cent from three over a 10-game game stretch dating back to Game 1 of the 2015 NBA Finals. Not surprisingly the Cleveland Cavaliers went 2-8 against the Warriors including losing seven straight.
The Warriors seemed to have identified and exploited James’ fatal flaw and it lent the air of statistical legitimacy to arguments that James’ best days were behind him and the Warriors’ sweet-shooting Stephen Curry was the NBA’s best player, not him.
The King was no more.
James entered the Finals in a tough spot. One hand this is his seventh time playing for a championship in his 13-year career and his sixth straight Finals, a feat of consistent brilliance no one has achieved in the NBA since the 1960s-era Celtics dynasty when the NBA was an eight-team league with no salary caps or free agency.
For that alone he should be celebrated.
But weighing against James is that he’s 2-4 in Finals and when the Cavaliers fell behind against the Warriors 2-0 and 3-1 it looked very much like he was going to be 2-5 – no team in NBA history has ever won a championship while being down two games.
So even the great Jerry West was coming to James’ defence. Well, of course he would: West went 1-8 in Finals in his career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
“With him, the negativity that surrounds him, honestly, to me, I think is so unjust and so unfair,” West told reporters earlier in the series. “Take him off of the team and see how these teams do. That’s all you have to do. Take him off. And it frustrates the heck out of me when I see some of these players who play this game at an enormously high level get criticized because their teams quote, ‘Can’t win the big one.’ The damn guy gets his teams there every year. He wins."
James is being compared with the likes of Magic Johnson (5-3), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6-4) and – of course – Michael Jordan, who went a perfect 6-0 in the Finals with six MVPs, a gold standard that may never be reached again.
But just when the jury was gathering yet another bit of damming evidence about James falling short he comes through with a pair of consecutive masterpieces nearly unmatched in Finals history. He’s propelled the Cavaliers into Game 7, a first for a team that started 0-2 and the first time in 50 years for a team that started the Finals 1-3.
His Game 5 performance on the road, facing elimination at Oracle Arena where the Warriors had lost just three times this season was already one for the ages – according to Basketball-Reference no one put up 41 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists, three blocks and three steals in a Finals game since data was available to search beginning in 1983-84. The stats database mashes up box scores from as far back 1983-84 and expresses the numbers with a weighted catch-all measurement they call GameScore. In Game 5 James’ GameScore was 39.2, the second highest in 32 years.
And then James played better in Game 6. His line of 41 points (again!); eight rebounds and 11 assists with four steals and three blocks translated into a GameScore of 42.5, the best ever recorded.
In the space of four days James authored two of the three most dominating Finals performances in three decades while facing elimination against the defending NBA champions coming off a 73-9 season.
For all of the debate about where James does or will stand among the greatest players in NBA history there can’t be any argument about what he’s doing right now: He’s playing basketball as well as it’s ever been played, and probably better.
The next debate – whatever happens on Sunday – will be whether James will earn Finals MVP honours, potentially joining West as the only player to have ever been recognized from the losing team. If the Cavs win James is a lock.
"I’m just out there playing, just reading, reacting," he said. "My teammates, like I said, have put me in position to be successful either when I have the ball or don’t have the ball, they give me the ball wherever I would like it. Setting great screens and trying to put pressure on their defence. I’ve been fortunate enough to see the ball go through the hoop the last couple of games. So, you know, I feel pretty good."
It’s the kind of understatement that comes easily when you know, deep down, that you can’t be stopped.
During a 13-minute stretch in Game 6 straddling the third and fourth quarters, James scored or assisted on 27 straight Cavaliers points, including 18 straight himself. The Warriors were trying to chip away at what had been a 20-point lead after the first quarter and when Klay Thompson scored eight quick points in the final two minutes of the third quarter it was suddenly a nine-point game.
James refused to be subbed out and helped keep the game under control.
Like everyone watching, Cavs guard Kyrie Irving could only observe in wonder.
"Special, very special," he said when asked about the way James took the game over. "You try not to sit back and watch because you’re trying to make sure that you create space for him and able to give him outlets when he needs it, but I mean, when a guy’s got it going like that, I mean, it’s just unbelievable to be a part of.
"That fourth quarter was unbelievable," said Irving. "When he’s playing in between like that mid-range, and outside, and driving to the rim, and also creating opportunities for all of us, it makes the game a lot easier. And then we’re getting out in transition, I mean, it’s just unbelievable to be a part of."
And we’re all part of it. Like the miles high mural of James in a Christ-like pose outside Quicken Loans Arena used to say: "We’re all witnesses." After what he’s done in Games 5 and 6 to help Cleveland to a Game 7 that no one would have predicted even a few days ago, there’s no limit to what we could see next.
James may have a hard time handling his boys in shooting contests these days, but when their dad is playing like he has been lately, no one in the world can handle him.