LeBron James 'Trying to Push Through a Lot' During Joyless NBA Finals vs. Dubs
OAKLAND, Calif. — LeBron James sat at his locker in the visiting locker room at Oracle Arena, his head bobbing side to side and to and fro as music flowed through his black and red Beats.
As always, both knees were wrapped in ice, and both feet were soaking in a blue ice bucket. As he found this moment of solace, this rare peaceful oasis in the middle of a massive storm that surrounds him, James' eyes darted around the room. He didn't say a word.
Assistant coach Jim Boylan walked by and patted James' right leg. James simply nodded. Later, he politely told an inquiring beat reporter, "I ain't got nothing for y'all tonight."
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After the Cavaliers' 122-103 loss to the Warriors in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, James finds himself in an 0-2 hole against Golden State for the third consecutive year. The burden on him grows ever more massive, with the joy seemingly having been expelled from his body like air from a balloon.
After the 102nd game of his 15th season, in his ninth Finals appearance and eighth in a row, the burden on James has never been greater—the joylessness of his existence never more pronounced.
"I see a guy trying to push through a lot," a James confidant told Bleacher Report on Sunday night.
What a contrast from a year ago, when James was often kid-like in his enjoyment of, well, being LeBron James. As B/R's Howard Beck chronicled in a story aptly titled, "The Joy of Being LeBron James," he once grabbed a beer from a courtside vendor during a game and pretended to take a swig; shimmied to the Harlem Shake; started a bottle-flipping contest on the bench; and just generally seemed to be overflowing with elation.
Who wouldn't when they ruled the modern-day basketball universe, counted two All-Stars (Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love) among his teammates and stood poised to etch his visage upon the sport's Mount Rushmore—those Michael Jordan comparisons be damned.
It was only a few weeks ago when James hit buzzer-beaters against the Pacers and Raptors in these playoffs and jumped onto the scorer's table to celebrate. Life, as they say, comes at you fast.
Now? James' second act in Cleveland has deteriorated into a Sisyphean struggle.
Such is the task at hand for James in trying, once again, to topple the mighty, carefree and sprightly Warriors.
For every monumental effort exerted at one end as James pokes and prods, seeking a worthwhile shot for himself or someone else, the Warriors' possessions at the other end play out like a video game. And James, whose hands are on every scoring opportunity for Cleveland, turns around and finds himself trying to guard Kevin Durant at the other end.
It prompted one reporter to ask James in the postgame news conference, "Is it fair?"
"I think I only got tired once tonight," James protested after his 29-point, 13-assist, nine-rebound performance. The only minutes he didn't play were the ones that came after coach Tyronn Lue cleared the bench with the Cavs trailing by 18 with 4:09 left.
"We're talking about basketball here," James said. "It seems like I come up here and tell you guys this all the time. The odds have been stacked against me since I was an adolescent.
"I put our team in a position to try to win a championship, to compete for a championship," James said. "It's my job to make sure we're as focused, laser-focused as possible, do my job, and continue to instill confidence in my teammates until the last horn sounds. That's my job, that's my obligation, and I need to continue to do that. Which I will."
Which he must.
It is familiar territory for James, who also trailed the Celtics 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals. And sadly, watching him confront task after seemingly impossible task—a basketball behemoth matched up against a superteam—has become joyless in itself.
"I don't think there's much he can't handle," the Warriors' David West told B/R. "He's a guy that carries a lot of load, but he's built for it. He's an unbelievable talent. He makes his teams become the cream of the crop when he's on them. He's going to have them ready to go in Game 3, and we don't expect anything less."
Heading home down 0-2 to the Warriors last year, James played 46 minutes and put up 39 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists in Game 3. Irving contributed 38 points, though he and Love were a combined 1-of-14 from three-point range in a 118-113 loss. The Cavs lost the series in five games, and of course the rest is history. Irving is now a Celtic, and James is still looking for some semblance of a replacement.
Whatever the outcome of this series, the search will continue into a free-agent summer—one that could reshape the Cavaliers again depending on his decision.
In 2016, James recorded 32 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, and Irving added 30 points in a 120-90 blowout victory in Game 3. They won the series in seven games.
Where is that kind of second-banana support going to come from now? In Game 1, the Cavs had the Warriors dead to rights behind James' incredible 51-point game but watched it slip away in the final, bizarre minutes of regulation.
On Sunday night, Love was productive with 22 points and 10 rebounds, and George Hill wasn't detrimental for once on the road. Yet the Warriors' starting backcourt of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson outscored their Cavs counterparts 53-20. "Throw in" Durant's 26 points on a lethal 10-of-14 shooting, and the boulder came rolling down the hill on LeBron.
In the interview room, James pondered my question about whether this burden was too much, whether it had sapped all the joy out of these moments for him. He decided, against all evidence, to strongly disagree.
"Absolutely not," he said. "I mean, it sucks to lose. It sucks when you go out there and you give it everything that you have, and you prep, and your mind is in it, and your body is in it, and you come out on the losing end. But nothing would ever take the love of the game away from me.
"The love of the competition is something I live for and something I wake up every day and train my body and train my mind for," he said.
With his left eye still bloodshot from getting poked in Game 1, James at least finished with one light-hearted moment: an anecdote about how his daughter was "weirded out" by how he looked on their pregame FaceTime.
"What is today? Sunday?" James asked. "When do we play again? Wednesday? So I'll be active. I'll be in uniform, and I'll continue to try to make plays and help our team be successful and try to get one up on the board."
As we've learned, don't doubt the man for one minute. But also, don't buy that what he's describing is fun.
In the words of the man himself, it sounds more like a "job" or an "obligation." An impossible one, at that.
Ken Berger covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @KBergNBA.
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