LeBron James’ leadership takes two freakish turns

The Cavs fell too far behind in the double overtime game, needing a nice little rally in the fourth quarter to force the extra period, and LeBron James struggled with Jerryd Bayless guarding him in the second overtime, holding him scoreless in the final 3:15 of the game.

Rule No. 3, Section I, Part A of the National Basketball Association rulebook states: “Each team shall consist of five players”.

James said he apologized to his teammates afterward. “Above and beyond all of the overwhelming accolades and greatness he’s displayed throughout his career, it’s pretty easy to team up with a guy like that and it’s also refreshing to come every day and know that you’re about the same things with your best guy”. Cavaliers G J.R. Smith has been accused of choking a 19-year-old NY man while the team was in town last week to play the Knicks.

The Cavs finished the game without four of their top eight rotation players. All subsequent personal fouls, including offensive fouls, shall be treated similarly.

Blatt appreciates having a talent like James on the team without a doubt, but it is the superstar’s leadership qualities that have kept the Cavaliers on track this year. They would have been even closer, but the seldom-used Varejao was pressed into action with Mozgov out and scored six big points in the quarter.

“That’s not the point”, he said.

“We just couldn’t find a way to stabilize ourselves”, coach Scott Skiles said.

After a few days of James publicly ripping his team’s play and an uncomfortable 45-minute film session Wednesday that exposed a lot of what the Cavs have done wrong the last few games, Cleveland responded the way both James and coach David Blatt wanted – at least in the first half.

“We’re playing soft”, Thompson said via ESPN after the loss of the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Detroit Pistons. You know what I mean?

“But he was frustrated. I understand his frustration, but obviously, you shouldn’t do that”, Blatt quickly added.

It wasn’t the only rare episode involving the officials Saturday night.

Hawks coach Budenholzer was given a technical for arguing a call in the second quarter, and stepped onto the floor where he bumped referee Ben Taylor and was ejected. Deng tried to set Wade up for an alley-oop, but Whiteside got to the ball a split-second before his teammate and slammed it down.

“I have a date, but I’m not sharing it with anybody”, said Irving in an interview with Slam Online, referring to his widely anticipated return to the Cleveland Cavaliers. He (Taylor) threw me out, and that’s his prerogative. “When one of us is out there, we have to support him”. “If there was contact, it was 100percent unintentional”.