With 1:41 left in the third quarter, the 2013 NBA MVP knew what he was going to do. You can see it in his revving steps seconds before leaping to block Hill streaking to dunk the ball.
Rising above Hill’s outstretched arm, James blocked the shot perfectly (keeping the ball inbound) and players ran to grab the loose ball. When bodies flew over bodies, Pacers forward Paul George ended up with a foul.
Within moments of James’ jaw-dropping block, NBA nerds on YouTube posted the highlight, and several GIFs got up-vote love on the NBA sub-reddit.
The Pacers ended up winning the game 99-92, tying the series 2-2. Game 5 is set for Thursday at 8:30 p.m.
James is no stranger to blocking athletic drives to the rim. His most clutch block came against the Oklahoma Thunder with the game on the line [at 2:09 of the video], and the Thunder’s Kevin Durant had the dying seconds to pull off a game-winner. When he dribbled hard to the bucket, James came out of nowhere to block the ball, giving the Cavaliers (his previous team) a last-minute win.
James strives to not only block the ball, but get the turnover, secure the possession. In this block, watch how he denies Jameer Nelson and snags the loose ball as well.
Unafraid to take on the biggest men in the game, James has even rejected all-star centre Dwight Howard, who’s listed at six-foot-eleven (LeBron is three inches shorter). Best of all for the Ohio native, he also ran down the court to score an easy lay-up, all within seconds.
There are other recent mix-videos of James’ best blocks, as seen here:
Looking at tonight’s block in comparison to the athleticism you’ve seen in other James blocks, where do you think tonight’s denial ranks? Let us know in the comments below (and you can also embed YouTube vids there too).
