We all knew who would be getting the ball. But with a poor shooting slump plaguing James in the playoffs series against the Bulls, it wasn’t looking good. Then LeBron did what he’s paid to do.
With a step-back shot, James sunk a two-pointer to give the Cavs a much-needed 86-84 win over the Bulls in Chicago, evening the series 2-2.
Watch the highlight play in the video embedded in this report.
James finished with 25 points on 10-for-25 shooting. He also contributed with 14 rebounds and eight assists.
The last minute of this game was a flurry of action. With Chicago up 84-82, James had the ball and was quickly double-teamed. He swung his arms and his elbow caught Mike Dunleavy’s chin, and the refs called an offensive foul against James. With 14 seconds left, Rose scored a driving layup. Now tied, James raced down the court and drove hard against the Chicago bigs, and looked to be fouled by Joakim Noah. The refs said “Play on” and the ball squirted out of bounds, off Noah’s hands.
With 1.5 seconds left, and no timeouts, the Cavs had to scramble to organize a play. But much to every Chicago fan’s frustration, the refs needed time to look over the last play via instant replay, thus giving both teams a timeout. Now the Cavs could draw up a play instead of thinking up a strategy quickly.
On the inbounds play, James took a pass, stepped back over Jimmy Butler and sunk a gorgeous two-pointer to win the game.
Call it vindication. On Friday night, the Bulls won their game thanks to a stunning bank-shot three-pointer courtesy Derrick Rose:
With the series tied, the Bulls head back to Cleveland for Game 5 on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
