LeBron James Says He'll 'Be Fine' vs. Raptors, Felt 'Burnt' After Pacers Win

LeBron James acknowledged he was a bit worn out after the Cleveland Cavaliers eliminated the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 on Sunday, but he insisted it wouldn't carry over to the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Toronto Raptors.

"I'll be alright," James said Tuesday, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. "I'll be fine."

James averaged 41.1 minutes per game against the Pacers, but he wasn't worried about the large workload.

"It wasn't an issue," James said. "It's what I had to do to help us get to the second round. And we're worried about the second round now that we're here."

However, James ended his press conference after the Game 7 win by acknowledging his exhaustion.

"I'm burnt right now," he said, per Matt Eppers of USA Today. "I’m not thinking about Toronto right now until tomorrow. I'm ready to go home. Can we? I'm tired. I want to go home."

Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue did note Tuesday, though, that the team has to monitor James' workload.

"Just got to be smart about the situation," he said. "I know he wants to play and play a lot, but we've got to be smart because we play every other day, so there's not a lot of time really to recover."

"[He looks tired] just after the game, but not during the game," Lue added. "I think his mental toughness—just being mentally prepared, not giving in to fatigue—is a big part of who he is."

James, 33, was nothing short of brilliant against the Pacers, averaging 34.4 points, 10.1 rebounds, 7.7 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks per game. He shot on 55.3 percent shooting from the field and 35.3 percent from beyond the arc.

He scored 44 or more points in three games, including a heroic 45 points in Game 7. He also posted a triple-double in Game 1 (24 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds) and a double-double in the first five games of the series. 

To borrow gaming slang, James was a hard carry. 

And he may need to carry even harder against a Toronto Raptors team that went 59-23 during the regular season and earned the top seed in the playoffs. The Cavaliers won the season series, 1-2, but the playoffs are an all new beast, and DeMar DeRozan and the Raptors surely haven't forgotten about their past playoff exits at the hands of the Cavaliers.

But James remained focused on the accomplishments of his team.

"It's about what we did," he said. "Just trying to help us advance. I had a lot of things that I had to do to try to help our team win, and I was satisfied with the fact that I was able to go out and make plays to help our team succeed and move onto the next round, and that's the most important thing."