Ethan Sears
Just how much of a superhuman is LeBron James?
The Warriors are relatively heavy favorites on the series. They have home-court advantage. They won 73 games last season, then added one of the best three basketball players in the world. From that standpoint, it’s easy to look at this series as Golden State’s to win.
But LeBron James complicates all of that because he’s not just the best player in the league, he’s the second-best player of all-time. He didn’t even tap into his reserves during the regular season and averaged 26.4 points, 8.6 rebounds and 8.7 assists per game. During the playoffs he’s at 32.5 points, eight rebounds and seven assists per game on 56.6 percent shooting from the field.
Even if the Warriors are slowing him down, he’ll still put up insane numbers. Remember, in 2015 when Andre Iguodala won Finals MVP for doing a great job defending James, many wanted to give the trophy to James himself for singlehandedly pushing the series to six games.
If Cleveland is going to win this series, James has to put up a superhuman effort again, but there’s not much reason to believe he can’t. It feels like James has been saving himself for this. He’s been on autopilot until now, absent-mindedly putting up insane numbers and leading the Cavs to the Finals.
But we’ll be getting the best possible version of LeBron James in this series, a terrifying proposition unto itself, in part because we almost never see the best possible version of LeBron James.
Outside of the NBA Finals, James has almost no need to go into fifth gear. Sure, we see flashes of it. The second half of Game 3 against the Indiana Pacers, when he led a 25-point comeback, scoring 41 for the game, was one such time.
We see it other times on the occasional chasedown block. A possession or two when he decides to remind everyone that he’s the best.
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But by and large, James stays in third gear. This is the first time since the 2016 Finals where we’ll see him in fifth, at his absolute best, constantly. That — along with great performances from Irving, Love, and Co. — was enough to break Cleveland’s 52-year championship drought last season.
Whether it’s enough this year, with Golden State having added Durant, remains to be seen.
