Coach wisely heeds King James
A story LeBron James told after Cleveland's 86-84 victory at the United Center seemed difficult to believe.
Cavs coach David Blatt's original instructions on the final play were for James to throw the ball inbounds with 1.5 seconds remaining.
"To be honest, the play that was drawn up, I scratched it," James said. "I just told coach, 'Just give me the ball and we're either going to go to overtime or I'm going to win it for us.' It was that simple.
"I told coach there's no way I'm taking the ball out unless I can shoot it over the backboard and it can go in."
Smart move by James. He tossed in a 22-footer with Jimmy Butler contesting to give the Cavs a series-tying win at the buzzer.
"I faked like I was going to go for the lob," James said. "I bounced it back to the left corner and just hit the shot that I'm very comfortable with taking. It's a huge win for our group. For us to come through in a hostile environment like this was huge."
Cavs take extra time:
Plenty of strange things happened in the final two minutes of Sunday's game.
James was called for 2 offensive fouls. First, Joakim Noah took a charge, then James was whistled for hitting Mike Dunleavy with an elbow to the face while trying to muscle out of a double-team with 14.3 seconds left.
The second turnover allowed Derrick Rose to tie the game on a driving lay in with 8.3 seconds remaining. At that point, neither team had a timeout left, but as James brought the ball upcourt, Cavs coach David Blatt frantically signaled for a timeout his team did not have.
"Yes, I tried to call one and almost blew it," Blatt said after the game. "Then they told me we didn't have one. Then we got a break when the ball went out of bounds."
James was cut off trying to drive the baseline and had a pass swatted out of bounds by Nikola Mirotic with 0.8 seconds showing on the clock. It was obvious Mirotic was the last to touch the ball, but the referees decided to look at the replay. That not only gave the Cavaliers a free timeout to set up the final play, the refs also put 1.5 seconds on the clock. James would not have been able to get off the same shot in time had it stayed at 0.8.
Asked about the sequence after the game, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau evaded controversy.
"I thought Jimmy (Butler) was right there," Thibodeau said. "A great player created space and got the shot off. That's what I saw."
Injury report:
This has been a rough postseason across the NBA. The Bulls played without Pau Gasol on Sunday because of a left hamstring strain. His status for Tuesday's Game 5 in Cleveland is unclear.
Taj Gibson left Sunday's contest in the fourth quarter after twice grabbing for his right knee. After the game, he said the knee was OK.
Cleveland's LeBron James turned his left ankle in the third quarter while getting called for a charge against Derrick Rose. James stayed on the ground holding his leg for about two minutes, but stayed in the game after a timeout.
"I rolled it pretty good, but I wasn't coming out," James said. "It was throbbing for a little bit."
Cavs guard Kyrie Irving didn't move well on a sore foot, but still managed to score 12 points in Game 4, mostly at the foul line. Since halftime of Game 3, Irving has hit 3 of 21 shots from the field. He still played 41 minutes on Sunday.
"The kid is a warrior.," James said. "What he's going through right now, no one can relate. no matter if he's playing on one foot or not, you've got to account for him because of his ability to make shots."
Bull horns:
Chicago native Kanye West took the court to count down pregame introductions, then performed his single, "All Day" during a first-quarter timeout. ... Taj Gibson started in the playoffs for the first time since his rookie season, when he started all five games against Cleveland in 2010. ... Game 3 was the first time all season Cleveland lost a game while hitting at least 14 baskets from 3-point range. The Cavs are now 17-1 when that happens. ... Here's the updated list of 30-point games in Bulls history during the playoffs: Derrick Rose 11, Bob Love 13, Michael Jordan 109.