LeBron James' only 3-point basket won the game for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Wow.
That was the word LeBron James used in describing his buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give Cleveland a dramatic 96-95 win against the Orlando Magic in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals Friday night at Quicken Loans Arena.
James said more than that, though.
On how the fans reaction to the shot…
“Wow. I mean, the reaction from the fans and my teammates. It was; the loudest it has ever been in this building was the first time I made the playoffs my third year and we faced Washington (in the first round). When we won that game, the towels was out. It was unbelievable. I lost my wind soon as I ran out on the court. Tonight surpassed that by 10 times. It was unbelievable. You couldn’t hear anything except the roar of those 20,000-plus fans, man. They deserved it. They deserved it.”
On the final shot…
“Well, the first option was for me to fake up and go for the lob. Two things happened. We had 6-10 Rashard Lewis on Mo so it was going to be a difficult pass. When I went to go for the lob, Hedo (Turkoglu) never bit on it. I told Mo, whatever it was going to take from me, I was going to get the ball. No matter what happened. If the first, third, second, all the options run out, I’m coming to get the ball. I knocked down the shot. Biggest shot I’ve made in my career.”
For James, a second is an eternity.
On how long that final second seemed…
“I just took my time. Just took my second. For me, a second is a long time for me. For others, it’s very short. I mean, those are, as a kid, you practice those type of moments. As a kid and a basketball player, you sit in your backyard and you sit in the gym and you go ’5, 4, 3, 2, 1, eeeh. cooook.’ Those are the moments that as a kid, you don’t have to be in the NBA to know what I’m talking about. Everybody knows those type of moments. To hit a shot like that at the buzzer at home, wow.”
On comparing it to Michael Jordan’s game-winner to beat Cleveland in the 1989 NBA playoffs…
“Well, that guy is not in the league anymore (laughing). So the other 23 is now on the good side now. The other 23 is gone so we don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
On why he thinks he wasn’t defended by two players on the play…
“No. For one, I think they had seen that set before. We ran it one time earlier in the season in Indiana right before the All-Star break and I was able to get a foul on Danny Granger. So Rashard Lewis played it perfect. He stood tall, got in Mo’s way and dropped (back) and if you watch the replay, Rashard Lewis even got a contest on the shot when I got (the ball) up. It was just a little bit too late. I mean, they played it perfect. It was just a good shot. Good shot (Smiling). The same way we guarded Rashard when Rashard hit that three, we guarded it perfect. Good players or great players just make good shots, man.”
While James said the Magic played the play perfectly, Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy didn't and took the blame for it.
On whether scoring Cleveland’s last 25 points in a Game 5 double OT playoff win at Detroit is bigger than hitting the game winning shot last night…
“I wouldn’t say put one ahead of the other. That was a great performance also from us as a team and for me as an individual. Tonight was another good performance by me as an individual and us as a team. That’s a shot you’ll see for a long time, you know? You watch classic games and you see Jordan hit game winners. You go all the way back to Jerry West hitting game winners and Magic Johnson going across the lane to hit the jump hook against Boston. You see all these type of shots, man, always being played even when the game as left you as an individual. So hopefully I can stick my foot in that category with Magic and Jerry West and Jordan and all these other guys that have made spectacular plays on the biggest stage in the world.”
On if he had any doubts the shot was going in…
“Honest answer? When I caught it and squared, it felt great. While I was in the air, it even looked like it was going in, but the breaks we have been getting so far that it was a great chance that it wasn’t going in, you know. Hedo hit a tough shot over Sasha to take the lead and it was, I just didn’t know. It was like, you know, I didn’t pray as much as Mo did (Williams said he prayed before the play). It felt great. It felt great. Now if it had came out, it’s possible I could have missed that, too, but it felt great. I practice those type of things, man. You guys see me every day. You guys see me after practice. I’m catching, shooting things that may not happen in the game, but it happened tonight.”
Sasha Pavlovic was the first to grab James in celebration after the league MVP made the shot.
On if the shot always went in when he practiced it as a kid…
“No. You didn’t. No. As a kid, you wouldn’t leave the gym until you made it. As a kid, you’d do the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and if you missed 20 in a row, you wasn’t allowed to leave the gym until you finally made that shot. I was always Jordan when I made that shot because in my era growing up, Mike was always the one who made those 5-to-1 game winners. The light goes off and the crowd goes crazy. So I wanted to be Mike when I did those things, you know. I got that out my bag of Michael Jordan tricks, I guess.”
On how it felt when it left his hands…
“It felt good. I was able to square up and just lock in. It wasn’t like a desperation shot. You know, sometimes you see desperation shots with like one second or 7/10ths of a second. You see those desperation shots where you have to catch it and flick it up there. I was able to square up and knock it down.”
Wow.
