Aging like fine wine, Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James still shines when it matters most

CLEVELAND – The first 57 seconds came near the end of the third quarter, LeBron James finally heading over to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ bench after logging 35 minutes – 35:03, as long as we’re counting – of intense, frantic, backs-against-the-wall elimination basketball against the Boston Celtics in Friday’s Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals.

James took his seat with the idea of resting as much as he could, as quickly as he could. That’s about all he gets this time of year, when subbing James out of the game too often is like the Cavaliers loosening their grip on a balloon they’re blowing up but have yet to tie off.

If the air went out of Cleveland’s balloon at Quicken Loans Arena, it was going to be out for months. Heck, given James’ possible departure in free agency this summer, the air might have been gone for good.

“Obviously [if] I get a minute, couple minutes here per quarter, would be great. But it’s not what our team is built on right now,” James said after yet another remarkable performance to keep the Cavs’ postseason alive.

With what was left of the third on the game clock and how it played out, followed by the break between quarters, the Cavaliers’ star got about five minutes in real time to catch his breath. Then promptly subbed back in for the fourth.

“Our team is built on me being out on the floor to be able to make plays, not only for myself but make plays for others,” James said. “It’s just the way we’ve been playing, and we’ve been succeeding with it.

“I was able to play 46 minutes today. I got my couple minutes, I guess.”

He got another 57 seconds to be exact. They were less hurried, less nervous and absolutely earned, coming as they did at the very end. When James exited for good, his work was done. The Cavs had pushed this home-dominant series to its max, with Game 7 at Boston’s TD Garden Sunday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).

James’ stats line was one of those gaudy/ordinary types he has spoiled his team and NBA fans with for so many years: 46 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. He also had three steals and one blocked shot, racing back in the third quarter to deny Boston’s greyhound guard Terry Rozier after finishing a Cavs fast break an instant before.

James went down as if shot early in the fourth, his team up 89-82; teammate Larry Nance fell into the future Hall of Famer’s right leg. But after a few tentative, anxious moments both for him and the folks in the arena, James was back to moving, pivoting and launching as if nothing had happened.

“I felt some pain throughout my entire right side of my ankle into my leg,” said James, who seems to go through more histrionics and drama than the average player when he gets clobbered, without enduring the same level of injury.

“I was just hoping for the best, obviously, because I’ve seen so many different injuries, and watching basketball with that type of injury, someone fall into one’s leg standing straight up.”

Not long after that, though, James was draining two Back Bay-breaking 3-pointers on consecutive trips, burning young Celtics forward Jayson Tatum both times from deep on the left wing. The second sent Boston scurrying into a timeout with 1:40 to go, and had James going a little primal along that far sideline, pounding his chest and hollering out.

“The love of the game causes reactions like that,” James said. “Understanding the situation and understanding the moment that you’re in. It was just a feeling that you can’t explain unless you’ve been a part of it.”

James has been a part of it plenty. This was the 22nd elimination game of his career, his eighth since returning to Cleveland in 2014. He is 13-9 overall and 6-2 in this Cavs 2.0 version.

His production in these win-or-go-home games is unsurpassed in NBA history. James is averaging 34.1 points, 10.8 rebounds and 7.4 assists, performing best when it matters most. That wasn’t always the case – James had some rough-shooting, high-turnover nights in elimination games early in his career.

More recently, though, he’s everything you want but cannot get in a mutual fund: His past performances definitely are a guarantee of future results.

“I’ve watched him play a lot of really great games, but that one’s right up there towards the top,” said Kyle Korver, Cleveland’s 37-year-old sniper. “It’s just so much heart. He wanted this game so bad.

“I think he just craves those moments. He loves those moments. When the game is on the line, when the season is on the line, he’s just been rising up, and that’s what the great players do.”

Iconic players like James and, before him, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are the ones who block whole NBA generations from achieving their dreams, hoarding Finals appearances and championship rings for them and theirs only. Celtics Brad Stevens, young as he is, has had to gameplan against James’ greatness and ability to dominate three times in playoff series now.

“Does that ever come into our minds? Yeah, every time we watch,” Stevens said. “Every time you’re standing out there. Every time you watch him on film. Best player in the game. Special night tonight and special night in Game 4 [44 points]. I can’t say enough good things about him.”

At least one of James’ own teammates didn’t always feel that way.

“I’ve been in the league for some years and ran across him on the other side and really hated his guts,” said George Hill, the former Indiana Pacers guard who never beat James in postseason basketball before joining him via trade in February. “But to have him on our side, it kind of lets me take a deep breath of fresh air. It’s just something that you really can’t explain what he’s doing night in, night out.”

The view from the Cavaliers’ side isn’t just safer, it’s illuminating for George.

“Yeah, I thought the best was when he always put us out,” the veteran said. “But to actually see it when he’s on your team, I can’t even put it into words. Sometimes I just think, ‘How did he make that shot?’ Or ‘How did he make that move?’ Or ‘When did he see that pass?’ Just making big plays and big shots. People always list him as not a shooter, but he’s making big shots down the stretch. If it’s 3-pointers, layups, dunks, passes, he can do it all.”

James wasn’t always so complete as a player. In some of his early forays into the playoffs, critics would pounce. Passing off a potential winning shot, for example, to less-decorated teammate Donyell Marshall. Getting ousted by a savvier, saltier Celtics crew in seven games in 2008 and in six two years later.

A couple years after that, though, James would return the favor with his new crew in Miami. He dropped 45 points with 15 rebounds on Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and the rest right on the hallowed parquet in Game 6, then backed it up with 31 in Game 7. Now he’s tormenting a whole new set of Celtics.

“Like I said, I haven’t always done it in my whole career, but I’ve never shied away from it,” James said. “That’s either making a shot or making a play. I was taught the game the right way ever since I started playing.”

So it’s talent to start, fundamentals ladled onto that and then time and experience to percolate, to ferment, to ripen James into what he is now: No one to be trifled with when there’s something to be won or to be staved off.

Getting a little more introspective than usual, James talked about the maturation journey he has taken since arriving on the NBA scene still a teenager in 2003.

“I’ve embraced a lot of situations as you grow up,” he said. “I mean, I love being a husband now. Did I embrace that at 18, 19? I don’t think so.

“As you get older, you just grow into more things. I didn’t love wine until I was 30 years old, and now every other [social media] post is about wine, National Wine Day. So you learn and you grow and you know what’s best for you as you get older. That’s just all of us. I think that’s what being a human being is.

“At 18, I don’t think I’m the same player that I am today at 33, and I shouldn’t be. I’m just much more seasoned.”

Fifteen seasons worth and counting, aging like all that wine. That’s the guy Boston will try to put out Sunday. Arguably the GOAT, undeniably the BLOAT, as in Best LeBron of All Time.

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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

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