King James not NBA royalty yet

CLEVELAND -- The King will have to wait to become real NBA royalty.

LeBron James stumbled, not soared, through his first NBA Finals, which ended in a sweep with Cleveland's 83-82 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night.

"I think their defensive intensity and some of the things that they did definitely kept me off guard," James said. "The turnovers were definitely uncharacteristic of what happened. It was a lot of unforced things, me losing the ball or me making bad passes. All things I can control and I wasn't able to do that."

James had 24 points and 10 assists, but shot just 10-of-30 from the field and had some costly miscues in the fourth quarter. He had six turnovers, finishing the series with 23.

Perhaps James was tired Thursday after getting less sleep than usual. He was at the hospital when his girlfriend, Savannah Brinson, gave birth to the couple's second son, Bryce Maximus James, early Thursday morning.

So June 14 will always be a memorable day for James. The rest of these Finals were one to forget.

James shot 36 percent in the series, often struggling to find open shots against the tough defense of Bruce Bowen.

"He had some great looks and they just didn't go in," Cavs coach Mike Brown said. "And not just his jump shots, but we're talking about he had a few layups, I think, almost every game that normally go in but for some reason they didn't."

Still, James seemed on the verge of taking over Game 4, making consecutive baskets to give the Cavs a 61-60 lead midway through the final quarter -- their first lead in any second half in the series. But then quickly, potential victory slipped right through his hands.

He turned it over with Cleveland down six with under 2½ minutes remaining, and allowed a rebound to glance off his hands out of bounds after his 3-pointer had cut it to five with under two minutes to go.

He was even unlucky -- a San Antonio pass with two seconds remaining on the shot clock hit off his foot, giving the Spurs an additional 12 seconds. The Spurs ended up getting Fabricio Oberto's three-point play, pushing their lead to six.

James tried to lead a late rally, hitting a 3-pointer that made it a two-point game in the final seconds. But the Cavs took too long to foul, and he never had another chance to win or tie it.

"It definitely could have been better," James said of his play in the Finals. "It could have been better in order for us to win. If I don't play well, our team is not going to have a good chance to win. I've got a lot of things to work on to get better for next year."