LeBron James choked again.

I mean, he didn't really. That's not really what happened.

And actually, honestly, outside of really two series in his entire career, it's hard to make an argument he ever has. But people really like that narrative, so ...

LeBron James choked again.

Yet here's the reality: James did not score in the final 5:28 of the fourth quarter vs. the Toronto Raptors in the Cavaliers' Game 4 loss which tied the Eastern Conference finals 2-2. He did have eight points, four rebounds, and three assists in the final period, which is a pretty good output, but the Cavaliers lost and LeBron is LeBron. So now the questions about if he's not "stepping up" or "exerting his will" have been resurrected from 2011 like some sort of time-traveling Frankenstein zeitgeist monster.

So what happened? The Cavaliers scored on 14 straight possessions into the fourth quarter and briefly took the lead. Taking a commanding 3-1 series lead and hitting the Raptors with an emotional back-breaker was within their grasp, only to slip away once again, as Cleveland got outscored 13-5 in in the final 5:20 of the game.

Surely the idea that James was just trying to get others involved or that things just "didn't work out" is simply a matter of making excuses for James, right? Well, why don't we actually take a look at what happened.

Here's a breakdown on how LeBron James failed to score in that time.

4:53 -- Richard Jefferson dunks

So that's a pretty decent start. The Raptors both jump to contest the curl off the screen and guard the 3-pointer, and Jefferson gets a wide-open dunk off a great pass from LeBron James.

You know passing, right? That thing where you don't hoist contested shots just because you're "supposed to?"

Anyway, this is pretty much the last bright spot for the Cavs, and the last time they'll have the lead.

4:12 -- Channing Frye misses a 3-pointer


James gets the ball in the high post. What to note:

  • The Raptors play great defense. Get used to me saying that a lot. Carroll's swatting at the ball to make sure James can't turn and get full vision, and distracts him just enough. Kyle Lowry is dogging Kyrie Irving up and down to deny the catch.
  • James has Kyrie on the cut, but he can't really tell where Patrick Patterson is from that angle. Frye had also knocked down some 3-pointers, so James is trying to feed the hot hand.
  • This, more than maybe any other possession, is where it would have been nice to have Kevin Love on the floor. Because when Frye can't get his shot off when Bismack Biyombo closes out, he just has to give it up and the whole thing gets muddled. Love is going to pump fake and drive to the rim, which is left completely open.
  • All that, and Frye still gets a corner rise-and-fire 3-pointer over a much smaller defender. By the way, Lowry does a great job here of not fouling, but getting up into Frye's body to make him aware of his presence. That's much more effective than just raising your hand against a taller shooter. It's still a makeable shot, and Frye just doesn't hit.

3:38 -- Frye misses another 3-pointer

James is driving against a. DeMar DeRozan attacking his dribble, b. DeMarre Carroll ready to help over and c. Biyombo, who had been challenging James at the rim all night. What possible sense does it make to attack three levels of defense over passing to Frye, who's open, and red hot still?

Carroll makes a great close out to contest, and again, Love is probably pump-faking and moving in closer. Love has shot badly in this series. He's also the guy you invested all that money in last summer. Frye can literally only do two things in that situation: shoot or pass. He shoots, he misses. Kind of hard to go out and say James made the wrong play here.

3:09 -- LeBron misses a layup

This is one where you can blame James. For starters, James' confidence in his jumper is so broken at this point that he passes up this shot.

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He can take all the time he wants here, he can dribble in twice, do whatever he wants. And he doesn't. He tries to take the lane.

Once again, Carroll recovers, but James can also make that layup, he just doesn't. You can say this one, at 3:15, is on him.

2:46 -- LeBron turns it over

It's a dribble hand-off play. It's kind of hard for James to hold the ball out for a hand-off without actually holding it out for a hand-off and anticipate that Irving's going to decide to cut away from it and go to the rim.

Lowry, honestly, just makes a terrific play here. It's just great Raptors defense that forces the steal and a LeBron foul on the other end.

2:27 -- Matthew Dellavedova misses a 3-pointer

This is the one that most people are going to cry "AH-HA! GOT HIM!" as they seek to pin the choker label on James. After all, he's being guarded, in the post, by little bitty Lowry.

Except James absolutely did the right thing here. One hundred percent. Or close to it.

  • For starters, sometime between when Shaq stopped backing every opponent into the stanchion and when Yao Ming, the last great post player, went away, the NBA basically decided that if you're a smaller defender guarding a bigger one, you're going to get the benefit of the call every time. Big forwards hate this. I call it the Pity Rule. If you are helpless in terms of height, and a big strong forward puts his shoulder back, the same as what happens in any post-up situation, and you fall backward, you're going to get the call. James tries to back up Lowry and he's going to get hit with an offensive foul.
  • If James rolls to the rim by turning middle, Carroll is coming into swipe at his dribble. If he turns baseline, Biyombo is going to challenge him again. Maybe that's what he should have done. That's one where you can argue he should be the superstar that he is, and man up, and blah blah blah.
  • Still, is that going to be better in expected value than an open corner 3-pointer from a 40-percent 3-point shooter? You really think challenging multiple defenders, including Biyombo, is better than open shot from a good shooter? If so, why? Because he's "supposed to?" Seems odd.

Instead of James being the one who failed here, maybe it's the two great shooters he's got on the floor with him, both of whom miss good shots badly.

2:00 -- Irving hits a 3 from somewhere in the middle of the lake

The Raptors are creeping up on James in the post again, again guarded by Lowry. This one I'll say he should have been more aggressive with. Jefferson is roaming free for a reason. In the end, Jefferson bails on the set, Irving gets Biyombo in isolation, and hits a deep 3. It's typical Kyrie ISO and it worked out.

1:12 -- J.R. Smith does some J.R. Smith stuff

Once again, James is posting LeBron, but this time Patterson brings the double more aggressively. The problem is spacing. Look at where Frye and Smith are when James turns to pass out of the double:

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If Frye is in the corner, that's a wide-open catch-and-shoot for Smith, instead of him dribbling into a contested 3 over a seven-footer. From there, it's just Smith's usual decision making. He's got nine seconds left on the clock, Kyrie comes out and is wide open, but Smith's already locked into what he's going to do.

Maybe James could have ran out to set a screen, but that's just not what the play calls for. And again, Biyombo plays great defense. If you're going to play Smith as a key player, you have to live with things like this.

0:12 -- Smith misses 3-pointer, Kyrie too


Notice that between 1:12 and the 22-second mark, the Cavaliers only had two possessions. With Frye in, the Cavs gave up two offensive rebounds, and the Raptors bled the clock.

Here, the Cavs run a play to get the ball in James' hands, and he draws two defenders. He makes a pretty incredible pass to the corner to an open Smith for a high-percentage shot, and again, Smith misses.

Should James have rose up for a floater in that situation, contested, baseline, off-balance? You can argue that the Cavs should have run an ISO action for James there, but with 22 seconds left and down six points, there's just no time for James to run off clock. He's not going to inbound and shoot off the curl; he's not Stephen Curry. (Or at least regular-season Curry.)

The Cavs ran a play to get James the ball, the defense reacted, James made the read. James would grab the offensive rebound and feed Irving, who also missed a 3-pointer. Them's the breaks.

0:00 -- Irving misses again

LeBron's the inbounder. If they weren't down six with four seconds left, that's not happening. This possession doesn't matter.

THE BIG PICTURE

So that's the microcosm. But is it possible all I've done here is make excuses? Sure, the way those possessions went down, you can argue he did what he should, but isn't it his job to change those possessions, to find the mismatch, to make the play?

Maybe. But consider this: The Cavaliers created their comeback in the fourth by trusting teammates and knocking down 3-pointers. To abandon that would have been foolish. More importantly, consider that the Raptors had nearly twice as many contested shots (51) as uncontested (27) but that the Raptors made a stunning 63 percent of those contested shots.

If James has another timid and mentally absent performance in the rest of this series like he did in 2010 vs. the Celtics, or 2011 vs. the Mavericks? Then sure. But James made the plays he should in Game 4. He wanted the ball, he made the read and only passed up one, maybe two shots he should have taken on his own. Criticize the design of the offense if you want, but realize how good this team has been offensively all year.

In the end, much of this comes back to a familiar topic: James is never going to be the kind of player his critics want him to be. He's not going to be Jordan or Kobe, forcing up jumpers over three defenders. It's not in his DNA. He's not going to crossover and launch a 35-foot 3-pointer like Steph. His game is predicated on power, skill and vision, but also on his mental makeup. He will always look to make the right play. If his teammates show that they are incapable of rising to the moment, then sure, James should force the issue, as he did against the Warriors in last year's Finals.

It's too early for that.

Until we reach that point, let's let sleeping tropes lie. James hasn't been perfect in the two Cleveland losses in this series, but his not forcing bad shots was not the problem in Game 4.

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LeBron James has much to be frustrated with vs. Toronto. USATSI