Lue: I should have called more plays for LeBron in Game 3
The Cleveland Cavaliers tasted defeat for the first time during their postseason run in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, a loss to the Toronto Raptors. Head coach Tyronn Lue believes calling more plays for the Cavs' best player might have changed Saturday's result.
"I think I should have called more plays to make (LeBron James) dominant," Lue said Sunday, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst. "I think we continued to run plays that had been effective and working throughout the course of this series, knowing that Kyrie (Irving) and Kevin (Love) could get going at any time. I should have put the ball in LeBron's hands a little bit more to let him create and let him draw double teams. So that was more on me."
The King was the lone member of Cleveland's Big Three to provide much of anything offensively, finishing with a team-high 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting in 38 minutes of action. Love and Irving combined to shoot 4-of-28 from the field and 2-of-11 from deep for 16 points - 13 of which came from Irving.
Toronto focused most of its defensive attention on keeping the four-time league MVP away from the rim after 76.6 percent of his shots came in the paint area during Games 1 and 2 at Quicken Loans Arena. More staggering, though, is the fact James had an average shot distance of just 1.6 feet in those games. That all changed in Game 3. The Raptors forced James into shooting more from distance, with only half of his 17 shots taking place in the paint.
While his role in running the offense diminished this season, James feels he can step up and handle that responsibility when his teammates are struggling.
"It's always a fine line, for sure. Obviously the ball, as far as me initiating offense, I don't handle it as much," James said. "With Kyrie kind of setting the offense and then (Matthew Dellavedova) coming in, the ball has kind of been taken out of my hands a little bit. I'm OK with that. But there is a point in time where some of the guys are not going, maybe let me see if I can get it going. But last night just didn't happen that way. We'll have a better game plan going into Game 4."
The Cavaliers own a 2-1 series lead over Toronto, with Game 4 going down on Monday night.