CHICAGO — On the heels of Derrick Rose’s miracle game-winner in Game 3 of the Bulls-Cavs series, LeBron James returned the favor with this long jumper at the buzzer to break an 84-84 tie and regain home court advantage:
James says he overruled David Blatt on the play call.
“To be honest, the play that was drawn up, I scratched it,” James said after the game. “And I told coach, ‘Just give me the ball. Either it’s going to overtime or I’m going to win it for us.’ It was that simple.”
Originally, James was supposed to take the ball out. He wasn’t having it.
“I told coach there’s no way I’m taking the ball out unless I could shoot it over the backboard and go in. So, I told him to have somebody else take the ball out and get out of the way.”
It worked, and rather than going home to Cleveland on Tuesday in a 3-1 hole, James and the Cavs have tied the series at two games apiece.
“I’ve made big shots before in the postseason,” James said. “Obviously this was a big one for our team. You don’t want to go down 3-1 to anyone. I was able to regain home court with the shot. For me, I just don’t like letting my teammates down. I did that on a few plays late in the fourth quarter. There were a couple of offensive foul calls. I was happy to be able to make a play at the end.”
