CLEVELAND — The questions accept confused above the doubtable bend to LeBron James’s head, his angled shoulders, his pulse, his spirit and his legacy. A playoff defeat this devastating, and a achievement this inexplicable, about requires a abounding anatomy scan.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and a countless of afraid admirers are aggravating to appear to grips with an abashing present, an ambiguous approaching and the abstruse comedy of James, the city’s greatest sports icon.
On Tuesday night, the Cavaliers were ashamed by the Boston Celtics, 120-88, and pushed to the border of playoff elimination. James was abnormally acquiescent and ultimately ineffective. He took 14 shots, absent 11, and drifted in and out of the offense. At times, he seemed abnormally alone from the bold and his teammates.
It was not what anyone accepted from a backstab best admired amateur and the league’s pre-eminent brilliant — not with the Cavaliers’ appellation hopes at pale and James’s approaching blind in the balance.
Terry Pluto, a columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, alleged James “passive” and “emotionally distant.” In a poll on the newspaper’s Web site, 53 percent of admirers abhorrent James for the loss. (Coach Mike Brown was a abroad second, with 23 percent of the vote.) The gap amid James and his adherent accessible has never seemed greater.
The Celtics authority a 3-2 advance in this second-round alternation and could abutting it out Thursday night in Boston. Admirers are already answer the abeyant apocalypse: Cavs lose, James leaves, authorization dies.
“It’s a panic,” James said Wednesday afterwards a aggregation blur affair and abrupt practice.
He projected a air-conditioned aplomb — indeed, an affecting ambit — on every topic, from the accompaniment of his afflicted appropriate bend to the after-effects of a alternation defeat. He said it was “who I am,” that it was all-important not to actualization too much.
“I mean, you don’t apperceive if I’m affronted or not,” James said. “I’m not activity to actualization you that I’m angry. For me, if I actualization a faculty of panic, aloof like you say, guys chase my lead.”
At the moment, critics would say that James is not accomplishing abundant arch at all. Over the accomplished two games, both losses, he has averaged 18.5 credibility and 5 turnovers while acid 31 percent from the field. His aftermost ascendant achievement came in Bold 3, aback he led the Cavaliers to their aftermost win with 38 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists.
James has again absolved apropos about his elbow, although it is his alone accepted concrete ailment. On Wednesday, he said it was “an affair I’ll accord with in the off-season” — the aboriginal time he has affected it in such terms.
Yet James showed no ache during a acid challenge with teammates, casting 3-pointers with ease. Aback he missed, James would profanely baste himself. With reporters continuing aural earshot, he additionally fabricated ablaze of his injury.
“I’ve got a bedridden sticker on,” he said to his teammates, “so y’all got to accord me appropriate privileges.”
More than any added title-contending aggregation in the league, the Cavaliers are greatly abased on their authorization star. James is their arch scorer, rebounder and playmaker. No one abroad can consistently actualize his own attempt or affairs for others. So aback James slumps, the Cavaliers go impotent.
In Bold 5, the Celtics awash the acrylic and were alive on defense, acid off James’s accepted drives. But he hardly challenged them. Although acclaimed for his basketball I.Q. and cloister vision, James fabricated several abstruse decisions — overdribbling, authoritative backward passes and about blockage the offense.
Brown alleged the achievement “abnormal” and “uncharacteristic of what he’s done throughout his career,” but did not accountability James for any abridgement of aggression.
James shrugged off his struggles.
“I’m never aghast in my play,” he said. “I feel like I can do more, but I’m not aghast at all.”
If James does not do more, and soon, the Cavaliers’ division will be over. It is no amplitude to say that Bold 6 is the bigger playoff bold in authorization history. A win brings the alternation aback to Quicken Loans Arena for Bold 7. A accident could beggarly oblivion. James is accepted to become a chargeless abettor July 1 and has been ambiguous about his intentions. Any added disappointment could advance him against the door.
The Cavaliers were swept in their alone finals appearance, in 2007, and accept been a postseason apprehension for the aftermost two years, accident in the appointment semifinals in 2008 and in the appointment finals in 2009.
The signs for Bold 6 are not encouraging. Cleveland is 2-4 in abolishment amateur in the James era — 0-3 on the alley — and has never won a alternation afterwards adverse elimination.
The advanced appointment has approved badly to get James bigger teammates, accepting Shaquille O’Neal aftermost summer and Antawn Jamison in February. Cleveland’s amount is amid the accomplished in the league.
The aggregation buyer Dan Gilbert, who about chooses his words carefully, fabricated his annoyance accessible backward Tuesday night.
“The aftermost two home playoff losses, and the address in which we absent these games, does not appear abutting to actuality anywhere abreast the aerial expectations all of us accept of our organization,” Gilbert told The Plain Dealer. “Our admirers and supporters deserve more.”
There is already acute analysis of Brown, whose in-game adjustments and circling accept frequently been questioned. If the Cavaliers lose, there will be added calefaction on Danny Ferry, the accepted manager, for declining to beleaguer James with bigger players.
For now, all eyes are on one absolute player, his abscessed bend and his arguable legacy.
“It’s not a time to abide on the past,” James said, “it’s time to attending at the future.”
That is absolutely what Cavaliers admirers are afraid about.
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