CLEVELAND -- LeBron James was off to a historic scoring pace (123 points) through the first three games of the 2015 NBA Finals. His Cleveland Cavaliers were controlling the tempo and putting themselves in position to bring home the first title in franchise history.

While the Cavs' defensive effort was winning them the games and Matthew Dellavedova's celebrity was growing with each dive to the floor and denial of Stephen Curry, James was conducting a masterpiece with his leadership and was entering discussions for one of the best Finals performances in NBA history. He and the Cavs were able to dictate the pace because they were able to stifle the Golden State Warriors offense.

However, once that Warriors offense broke through the defense and put their foes in position to play at a faster pace and chase some offense, the Cavs didn't have the weapons to keep up. With all their injuries, they had little depth, and couldn't muster the energy to answer back. And now the Cavs face the toughest situation of their season as they head back to Oakland for Game 5.

For LeBron, though, he won't call this one of the biggest challenges of his career.

"Biggest challenge of my career was being down 3-2 going into Boston [in 2012]," LeBron said after the game. "That's probably the biggest challenge of my career. Game 5 at Golden State is not that big when it comes to going to Boston and you lose multiple times in that arena, and the franchise that I was with at the time had never won a playoff game in Boston. Now that's pretty challenging. So I've been through a little bit in my pretty cool career."

Back in 2012, LeBron and his Miami Heat faced elimination in Boston in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. He responded with one of the most impressive games of his career, scoring 45 points on 19-of-26 shooting. Miami won Game 6, and then Game 7, and then the Finals, which gave James his first championship.

That was a much more emotionally challenging game for him because he had to overcome a mental hurdle in defeating the Celtics in Boston before he could help put them away. The difference, though, is he had a lot more help on that Heat team than he does with what's left of this Cavaliers team. As he plays this situation nonchalantly, he now needs to find a way to bring his supporting cast up to speed so they can steal another game in Oracle Arena.

While J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert have been unreliable on offensive in the first three games of this series, Dellavedova has become a cult figure in Cleveland with his defense and the 20-point effort he had in Game 3. All three players were nonexistent in Game 4 -- they combined for 19 points. Dellavedova was 3 for 14. Shumpert was 2 for 9. Smith made only 2 of 12 from the field.

This is something the Cavs can withstand when LeBron is able to have those historic scoring runs. But 20 points on 7-of-22 shooting isn't going to cut it against this Warriors defense. It's the defense that was so dominant in the regular season and ranked tops throughout the regular season and postseason campaigns. It's the same defense that was built to bother players like LeBron with their stable of versatile, long wing defenders, who can switch everything and recover to shooters when he's doubled.

"We were flying around," Shaun Livingston said after the 103-82 blowout that evened the series at 2. "When we’ve been at our best this season -- if you’ve watched us -- that’s what we’ve been doing.

"Give him different looks. Just try to switch it up on him. Obviously, he’s kind of had his way playing isolation, but just trying to make it hard for him."

LeBron James
Cleveland's LeBron James scored 20 points, his lowest total in these Finals. (Getty Images)

Much of this series has seen the Warriors trust in Andre Iguodala to defend LeBron with single coverage, while they feint double teams and hope to stay home on the shooters who picked apart the Atlanta Hawks defense last round. By going with the smaller, faster lineup in Game 4, the Warriors were able to swarm a lot more defensively and recover to run shooters off the line or contest their long attempts.

"They doubled me a little bit more tonight," LeBron explained. "They kind of made me give the ball up, seeing if some of my teammates can beat those guys.

"We couldn't make any shots from the outside, but we'll take those looks again. Those guys, my guys did a great job just stepping into them, trying to make them being confident about them. But when you go 4 for 27 from the 3-point line, there's not much success offensively."

James had been averaging 41 points heading into tonight's game and was routinely creating at least 60 points between his scoring in passing. The 20 points he scored and the 18 points he created off his passing didn't even reach his scoring average heading into Game 4. While LeBron plays the good leader and supports his teammates in their struggles, their lack of support took away the momentum they constructed with victories in the previous two games.

"You can either look at it, OK, we stole home-court and they stole it back," LeBron explained about the challenge of heading back to Oakland at 2-2. "Or you could look at it and say they won two on their floor; we won two on our floor. It would be the same thing. If they won Game 1 and Game 2 and we came home and protected home court, it would be 2-2 and we're heading to Game 5."

LeBron can draw back on past experiences and find morsels from his pretty cool career to help him rebound and be ready for Game 5 in a hostile environment. But will his teammates be able to do the same thing? They couldn't capitalize on their home-court advantage and build a 3-1 series lead. Now they have to figure out how to be the first team this season to win two games in Oakland.

They'll need more of that historic LeBron James, and they have two days off to find him and a  better effort from his teammates.