LeBron: Game 1 was 'one of the toughest losses of my career'

There were a lot of heavy hearts among Cleveland Cavaliers players following their Game 1 loss to the Golden State Warriors.

The team had plenty of opportunities to take a 1-0 NBA Finals lead on the road. Had George Hill sank his second free throw with 4.7 seconds left in the game, had J.R. Smith not dribbled the ball away from the hoop after grabbing the ensuing rebound, and had the Cavs not sputtered in overtime, perhaps a historic night from LeBron James wouldn't have gone to waste.

"It's one of the toughest losses of my career," James, who scored a career playoff-best 51 points, told reporters at Saturday's media availability, according to 95.7 The Game. "Just because everything that went on with the game and the way we played. We all know what happened at the end of the game. It was a tough 24 hours, not only for G-Hill, but for myself - our whole ball club - because we put ourselves in a great position to be successful."

Still, James has been trailing in The Finals before - against the Warriors no less - and found ways to push his teams back from the brink.

He told his teammates to "give yourself a day."

"If you need to take two days, OK, but today you should feel excited about the opportunity to be better and be great and move forward."