LeBron James came into the postgame presser after the 33-point loss to the Warriors in Game 2 of the NBA Finals and put a lot of the blame for the loss on himself.
LeBron made a point after Game 1 that the Cavs could not win if they turned the ball over and after making 7 turnovers himself I asked him what happened between the 1st quarter when they had zero turnovers and the rest of the game.
Pay attention to his answer to my question.
Q. You guys didn’t have any turnovers in the first quarter, and you held them to 19 points. Do you feel one of the key things to get this turned around at home is if you can keep those turnovers down you can slow down the game, and, like you said, keep them out of transition?
LEBRON JAMES: Well, that’s one of them. That’s one way to slow them down a little bit. You’re able to set your defense. The game kind of broke open when we had two straight turnovers. I think game was at 28-22, I turned the ball over. Draymond got it and was able to hit I think Livingston for a dunk. And then we had another turnover and Klay hit a three, and that kind of slowed us down. Even though we were still getting back in the game, it just slowed us down from that point on. We had the lead, and it started with my turnover, and I can’t just be careless with the ball, especially in the paint where a lot of reaching and things of that nature happen. So 18 turnovers once again for 26 points, I think it was 17 for 25 in Game 1. It’s just not good basketball.
To give this the proper context, the game had just ended and he specifically pointed out several plays in the early 2nd quarter that many people had forgotten about. It isn’t that he just remembered the plays he remembered every detail of those plays.
This isn’t unusual for LeBron to rattle off things like this, his basketball brain is brilliant. He sees the game like Neo saw the Matrix and knowing that, it must be frustrating for him to know he is in big trouble trying to deal with this Warriors team.
The gift and the curse of seeing all things is knowing when there isn’t a way out. LeBron is trying to chart a course where the Cavs can beat the Warriors and at the moment there are none.
Part of the reason LeBron has a rep of being tough of his coaches is because he is the brilliant student that is smarter than his teachers.
How do you coach someone who might a better basketball mind than you?
The feeling is that Coach Lue wants to run with the Warriors isn’t a strategy that is shared not just by LeBron but others on the Cavs.
It is hard enough to beat the Warriors as it is, but when you aren’t on the same page it is damn near impossible. The Warriors by comparison have so much trust in each other even when Klay and Steph playing like regular humans they are still blowing out the Cavs.
LeBron somehow figured out a way to win two games against the Warriors last year while Kyrie and Kevin Love were hurt, can he figure out a way to change a series that is looking more and more like a mismatch?
You know his brain is working overtime to figure out how, but this isn’t tennis, he is going to need to figure out a way to get his teammates to elevate their games.
Is that an equation that LeBron can figure out? We will find out on Wednesday.