LeBron takes pass to face, daps up fan after dunk, punishes 76ers
There aren’t many cases where a four-time NBA Most Valuable Player, two-time NBA champion, surefire Hall of Famer and inarguable all-time talent looks just like the rest of us. As we learned before Sunday’s game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Philadelphia 76ers, though, even LeBron James can sometimes get crossed up and clocked when two passes are coming his way at once:
[Follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]
Luckily, James was both none the worse for wear and willing to take his Wittmanning in stride:
Full video of LeBron James taking a ball to the face in warmups, he was laughing pic.twitter.com/6U18uzLPIA
— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) January 10, 2016
Maybe LeBron laughed off the errant pass because it came from the hands of longtime teammate and friend Anderson Varejao:
LeBron praised Varejao’s professionalism, then revealed AV hit him w/ the ball: “Yup, as I say that, he beams me in the face w/ a fastball”
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 11, 2016
… or maybe he didn’t sweat it too much because he had a pretty good feeling of what he was about to do to the Sixers.
The Cavs didn’t exactly put the pedal to the metal from Jump Street, allowing a determined and plucky 76ers squad to stick around until the early stages of the fourth quarter. Despite entering with an NBA-worst record of 4-35, the Sixers — who played small often, mixing and matching their lineups and getting strong contributions from reserve forwards Hollis Thompson and Robert Covington — cut Cleveland’s lead to just two points on a 3-pointer by recently acquired point guard Ish Smith at the 8:22 mark of the final period.
“I think it helps any time you can play against a team that is championship material,” 76ers coach Brett Brown said after the game, according to Dan Gelston of The Associated Press. “You weigh yourself up against the best and we came out of it quite well.”
They did not, however, come out of it as winners, thanks largely to James. After re-entering the game with just under 7 1/2 minutes left, James scored 12 of Cleveland’s final 14 points and helped key a defensive surge that limited Philadelphia to just six points down the stretch, propelling the Cavs to a 95-85 win. James finished with a season-high-tying 37 points on 15-for-22 shooting with nine assists, seven rebounds, two steals and just two turnovers in 37 minutes of work to lead Cleveland to its seventh straight win, improving its East-leading record to 26-9.
And with the exception of suffering his second shot in the face of the evening:
… James also seemed to have quite a bit of fun while destroying the Sixers, raising the roof after dunks:
… and staring down Thompson after an attempted chasedown of an acrobatic James layup came up short:
… and even dapping up a fan in the front row after throwing down a massive double-pump reverse dunk on the fast-break off a perfect outlet pass from Kevin Love:
“I love these fans here,” James said after the game, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “They are unbelievable. They know sports. Obviously, they love their teams. They love the Flyers. They love the Sixers. They love the Eagles. They love the Phillies and so on and so on. But they respect the game, and it’s a mutual respect.”
Even when it comes from him being so damn disrespectful to rims and defenders alike. All things considered, having to take some pain from a teammate’s pass seems like a small matter when you can also inflict it like this.
More NBA coverage:
– – – – – – –
Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
Stay connected with Ball Don’t Lie on Twitter @YahooBDL, “Like” BDL on Facebook and follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr for year-round NBA talk, jokes and more.
