LeBron James scored 51 points, had eight rebounds and eight assists in Game 1 of the NBA finals and his team still came up short in ovetime.
James shot 59.4% from the field, he made three of his seven three-point shots and he made 10 of 11 of his free throws, but his team ultimately blew a chance to close the game at the end of the fourth quarter when J.R. Smith rebounded a missed George Hill free-throw before running down the clock.
Hill had tied the game up at 107-107 with his first free-throw but he then missed his second attempt which was rebounded by Smith.
Instead of trying to take a game winning shot or pass the ball to a teammate, Smith ran down the clock and fired a pass to Hill with less than a second left in the game.
James was visibly livid with Smith and the guard claims that he thought that the Cavaliers were going to call a timeout after his rebound. Smith said that it was not a case of him believing the Cavs were ahead and trying to run out the clock for the win.
ESPN NBA analyst Stephen A. Smith said that LeBron looked at Smith like he was the most 'idiotic individual on earth' and that his indecisiveness ultimately cost the Cavaliers the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui1SquTFnxo
"I know that George Hill should have made that free throw to give them the lead," said Smith.
"I get that but missed free throws do happen. I'm shaking my head at two things; number one; the call with 36 seconds left that was overturned where LeBron James ultimately got called for the offensive foul; I think that's inexcusable.
"Number two; I don't really know what words I can use that are fit for FCCC airwaves to explain the tragic decisions by J.R. Smith.
"You talk about asleep at the wheel, I got to tell you something, that is as inexcusable as a mistake as you can possibly make.
"It's not like it was in the throws of action. You're George Hill, you're at the free throw line, you have an opportunity to take a deep breath, pause, collect your thoughts and what have you and still standing at the free-throw line where he was inexplicably not boxed out.
"He grabs an offensive rebound and runs out as if he was trying to run the clock out because he thinks they have the lead and ultimately blows it.
"He sends the game into overtime and LeBron James is looking at him like he has to be the most idiotic individual on the planet earth.
"He looks at LeBron James to say 'I didn't know, I thought we were up' and there you have it. You saw what happened in overtime."
Afterwards, LeBron was as rattled as any man would be after scoring 51 points against the best team in the land and still losing.
So he gave short shrift to a reporter asking him what was his team mate's thought.
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1002419403080851456
