Cleveland Cavaliers: What we learned from a must-win Game 4 victory
LeBron needs some help.
James has been fantastic this series, but he can’t do absolutely everything by himself.
LeBron was forced to play over 46 minutes in the win and it appeared that took a toll on him. He finished the second half with nine points on four of 11 shooting. Those numbers don’t necessarily show that he was tired down the stretch, but that appeared to be the case from the outside.
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A lot has been said about how this team isn’t talented enough, but that’s not a narrative I buy into. This team has talent, just nobody is playing up to their standards.
The Cavs don’t need someone to step up and play above their level. They just need every player to fulfill their role.
LeBron and JR Smith are the only Cavaliers that averaged the same or more points per game in the playoffs than they did in the regular season. It’s hard to win playoff games when seven players aren’t consistently meeting their scoring expectations.
The Cavs don’t need Kevin Love or Jordan Clarkson to score 20 plus points a night. They don’t need Rodney Hood to become the second scoring option. They just need everyone to do their job offensively and play up to their ability.
This may be controversial at this moment, but LeBron does have enough talent on this team to make it out of the East. This is a deep team with many talented players. They just need to play up to their roles.
LeBron is still the best player in the league, but he can’t carry the team all by himself. No one can. It’s also unfair to ask a guy in his 15th season to carry a team for 46 minutes a night.
LeBron could use a Robin to his Batman, but that’s not really what he needs. He just needs everyone to fulfill their role offensively. Unfortunately, JR has been the only player to do that so far this series.
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The good news for LeBron is that he has a couple days off to recover Game 5 on Wednesday night. We’ll see if LeBron finally gets more of that help from the role players in Game 5.