NBA AM: LeBron James Has To Do Everything

With the Cleveland Cavaliers excelling during a league-best 10-game win streak, despite utter chaos at the point guard position, LeBron James has had to do a little bit of everything.

With Derrick Rose pondering his future, Isaiah Thomas still unavailable and Iman Shumpert—another player who can spend time defending point guards—facing surgery, James was called upon in Atlanta Thursday night to match up defensively against Hawks point guard Dennis Schroder.

“It depends on what we need,” said Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue of what he asks of James on a game-to-game basis.

“Each game is different. Tonight we needed him to defend and guard. I think he only took 11 shots tonight but Kevin [Love] was good, [Jae] Crowder was good … Jeff Green. So, when guys are shooting the basketball and scoring and we need him to guard point guards, he stood up and did it and then everybody chipped in as far as scoring.”

Schroder racked up a game-high 17 points in the first half, helping to take Atlanta to a 67-63 lead. With former Hawk Jose Calderon unable to stay in front of Schroder, James took the task upon himself out of the break.

“I just wanted to take the challenge against Schroder,” said James in the visitor’s locker room. “He’s one of the fastest guys we’ve got in our league. He was kicking our butts in the first half.”

Lue explained his thought process on Cleveland’s halftime defensive adjustments.

“In the second half, I decided to start big and bring Jeff in there and put ‘Bron on Schroder,” said Lue. “He did an unbelievable job, one of the best I’ve seen all year. So that was big time for us, for him to guard Schroder, and [he] got some big stops.”

The coach added that James’ defense has been a recurring theme during the current streak.

“He’s playing good defense, guarding [Kristaps] Porzingis, guarding Schroder tonight,” said Lue. “He’s a great position defender against those point guards, knowing how to give them space but also be able to contest the shot [and] also be able to contest them at the basket because he’s bigger. Tonight, they put us in some tough situations. We tried to blitz Schroder, we tried to go under, we tried to switch. He’s a tough cover for us.”

An absolute master of his craft, James called upon his internalized database to approach the assignment against Schroder.

“He’s very shifty with his right to left crossover and his left to right crossover,” said James. “And once he gets a hip on you, he does a great job of keeping you there and finishing at the rim, which you saw a lot in the second quarter where he just kept getting bucket after bucket. I know pros and cons of every player on every team of what they like to do and not like to do on a possession.”

James got even more granular in his analysis of a huge block against Hawks second-year forward Taurean Prince.

“I figured if I forced him left — I cut off his right hand — he would have to try to shoot it with his left hand which, played by the percentages, the percentages are way down for him,” said James. “He couldn’t get all the way to the rim because I was on his hip. So once he picked the ball up, he only had two steps. And I just read his feet. Wherever the ball was going to go, that’s where it was going to take me. I planned on it to go a little higher than it did, and I just blocked it right to D-Wade.”

While James’ craftsmanship on defense has been a boost for the Cavaliers during the streak, Lue said another benefit has been Love’s acclimation to the center position.

“He had some tough matchups over the last six games — two with Dwight Howard, [Joel] Embiid, [Hassan] Whiteside, [Andre] Drummond,” said Lue. “He’s been great and now he’s shooting the ball better. I think he’s taken a liking to the five because he knows he’s going to get open shots and if teams put smaller guys on him, he’s going to be able to post them.”

With Cleveland’s point guard situation likely to remain unsettled for the foreseeable future, Love’s improved play and James’ mastery of the craft of basketball are two factors that have helped. The Cavaliers are the hottest team in basketball despite monumental challenges.

And if it’s to remain so, James will have to continue to do a little bit of everything.