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NBA Finals: Putting LeBron James’ Game 2 performance into perspective

By Reece Helms

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“LeBron James, your team just won Game 2 of the NBA Finals! How do you feel?”

How great have the NBA Finals been so far? Game’s 1 and 2 both going down to the final buzzer, and both in OT!

As great as these games have been, LeBron James has been even greater.

LeBron took a lot of heat after Game 1 for missing a potential game-winning shot, that forced the game into OT, which was when Kyrie Irving suffered his season-ending knee injury.

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When the news broke of Irving’s injury, everyone immediately wrote off the Cavaliers. Not many people were giving them a chance to win Game 2, or to win the series.

But LeBron didn’t care about any of that.

After dropping 44-8-6 in Game 1, King James somehow found a way to top it.

If we learned anything after Game 2, it’s to never underestimate LeBron James and this Cleveland Cavaliers team. LeBron has won nine straight Game 2’s with his team trailing 1-0 in the series.

In a must-win Game 2, LeBron dropped 39-16-11. How historic is that stat-line?

Well, only one other player in NBA history has had a triple double while scoring 39+ points. That other player is the league logo. Jerry West had 42 points, 13 rebounds, and 12 assists. LeBron also joined James Worthy as the only 2 players in history with at least 35 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists in an NBA Finals game.

Game 2 was LeBron James’ 5th NBA Finals triple-double, trailing only Magic Johnson who had eight during his career.

To put this into perspective, James just averaged 41.5 points, 12 rebounds, and 8.5 assists on the road in the finals against a team that was 46-2 at home entering the series, and won 67 games during the regular season. Wow.

It’s obvious how great, and historic Game 2 was for LeBron James. But here is a more in-depth question, which will change your perspective a little bit:

How important was winning Game 2 for LeBron James?

Before we answer this, let me ask you another question. Why did LeBron James return home to the Cleveland Cavaliers, leaving Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat?

He wanted to bring the city of Cleveland a championship, something that hasn’t been done in a long, very long time. And it has never been done by the Cavaliers.

Not only have the Cavaliers never won a championship, but they had never won a single NBA Finals game until Sunday night, when who else but LeBron James led the Cavs to a win.

Cleveland obviously did not win a championship last night, but they finally reached the milestone of a victory in the NBA Finals. It was a very important step for this franchise.

That right there answers our question of how important LeBron James’ Game 2 performance was.

“He willed his guys to win that game. That’s what a champion does and he is a champion,” said David Blatt when talking about LeBron.

As we saw during the off-season in his essay on Sports Illustrated, LeBron cares deeply about winning in Cleveland. If he didn’t, he would still be playing in the beautiful city of Miami.

When asked about what winning Game 2 meant, LeBron responded by saying this:

"It means everything. It means everything to be able to be a part of history and get this win for this franchise, for our city, for all the Cavs fans all over the world. But if I could leave our fans with anything: These fans here are pretty loud, pretty good—really good. I’m looking forward to seeing our fans and I can’t wait to see our fans. I’ve heard our fans pretty loud a few times before. A couple instances: My first postseason appearance was really loud; me coming home against the Knicks to start this season was pretty good. But I know we can be much louder than any fan base in this league. I know they’re getting ready and I can’t wait to see them.”"

The Cavaliers still have a long way to go. Winning Game 2 was great, but winning three more games is going to be a very tall task without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.

But Game’s 3 and 4 will be in Quicken Loans Arena, and this under-manned Cavaliers team will have their own fans supporting them.

Role players always play better at home, it’s just a fact of basketball.

Besides LeBron James, the rest of this Cavaliers team is role players. J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert will likely hit more three-pointers at home than in any other arena. Playing at home in front of the home crowd just gives role players an extra boost of confidence.

LeBron James was in a similar situation last year with the Miami Heat.

Going into the series last year, the Heat were heavy underdogs against the Spurs, like the Cavaliers are this year against the Warriors. Except for the fact Miami was healthy, as we all know the Cavaliers aren’t right now.

If you remember Game 1 of the NBA Finals from last season, the Heat were ahead late into the 4th quarter against the Spurs. This was the game when the Spurs’ air conditioning stopped working, and it was about 90+ degrees in the arena.

James had to leave the game with under 5 minutes to go due to cramps. San Antonio went on to out-score the Heat 36-17 in the 4th quarter.

It was a game the Miami Heat very easily could have won. But in Game 2, LeBron came out with a sense of urgency, just like he did against the Warriors.

James scored 35 points (14-22 FGA) and grabbed 10 rebounds. Not as good as the 39-16-11 he did this year, but it still got Miami the win.

Despite the win, it was all down-hill for the Miami Heat after that. When the series switched back to the Miami Heat’s home-court

After winning Game 2, it seemed the Heat had all the momentum going back home, and had a good chance to win both home games to go up 3-1 in the series.

Well, that did not happen. The San Antonio Spurs just came out and annihilated the Miami Heat in Game’s 3, 4, and 5 on their way to winning the NBA Finals.

This year’s Cleveland Cavaliers cannot let the same thing happen to them. They are coming off an emotional Game 2 win, and this picture just says it all:

In conclusion, Game 2 was a great win for the Cleveland Cavaliers, thanks to an even greater performance by LeBron James.

It was an important win for the Cavaliers’ franchise, but they must keep their foot on the gas pedal. Winning home games is not as easy in the NBA Finals, just ask the Miami Heat from last year.

LeBron James accomplished a lot of great things in Game 2, but at the end of the day it’s just one game. He needs to stress that to the rest of his teammates, and they must come out with the same sense of urgency in Game 3.