LeBron James did everything he could to help his Cleveland Cavaliers win Game 3 of the 2017 NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday night.
He scored 39 points with 11 rebounds and nine assists in 46 minutes, but it wasn’t enough as the Cavs squandered a fourth-quarter lead to lose 118-113.
Those are incredible numbers for James and maintain his triple-double average for the series, but one unreal stat explains why Cleveland now is trailing 0-3.
LeBron James was +7 in 46 minutes and his team lost by five. In a game of incredible stats, nothing touches that.
— Michael Pina (@MichaelVPina) June 8, 2017
The Cavs outscored the Warriors by seven points when James was on the floor in Game 3. He only rested for two (!) minutes in the entire game, but Cleveland was a minus-8 in that timeframe. It came at the end of the first quarter when Golden State finished strong to take a 39-32 lead into the second quarter.
The stat in the tweet above further proves that James deserves almost no blame for the Cavs’ current predicament. Cleveland’s role players have failed to perform at the level required to beat an opponent of Golden State’s caliber.
Thumbnail photo via Ken Blaze/USA TODAY Sports Images
