LeBron had a chase-down block on his own breakaway dunk
LeBron James has two signature highlights — the contest-ready breakaway dunk and the chase-down block. He’s done them often enough that YouTube has several full compilation videos for each play. These abilities are part of why he’s one of the most entertaining players in NBA history.
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One play in the third quarter of Friday night’s game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons saw James pull off both highlights on the same play. Roughly halfway through the period, LeBron chased down his own breakaway dunk attempt:
All credit to Zach Harper of CBSSports.com for noting this strange self-rejection.
If you just watch the highlights from this one, you’d probably think that LeBron had a rough night. The second quarter saw Kentavious Caldwell-Pope swat away what looked like an open transition jumper:
Then, after the Pistons scored on their final play of the first half, cameras caught James chewing out Tristan Thompson (Kyrie Irving joined in later, too):
But it was actually a pretty great night for LeBron. He put 20 points (8-of-17 FG) to go along with nine rebounds and eight assists, which made him the 17th and youngest player to 26,000 points in NBA history. The Cavs led by 18 to start the fourth and held on for a 114-106 win.
Kyrie Irving was stellar, too, with 28 points on 11-of-19 shooting:
Kevin Love put in a team-high 29 to make Friday the first time this season when the Cavs’ three biggest names have all scored 20 points. New head coach Ty Lue may value that fact as a better sign for the team’s future than their three-game winning streak.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
