Sniffing his fourth consecutive NBA finals appearance, LeBron James choked.
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The NBA's best player had one of the worst performances in his career on the same night that Paul George had one of his best nights, and the Indiana Pacers staved off elimination in the Eastern Conference finals with a 93-90 victory at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Wednesday night.
James played a total of 24 minutes, finishing with seven points on 2-of-10 shooting, four assists, three turnovers, two rebounds and five fouls. He got in foul trouble in the first half and never got in sync, costing his team the game.
Despite his struggles, James and the Heat had the ball trailing 92-90 with 12.8 seconds left. He received the throw-in pass and drove the lane past George, drawing Pacers center Roy Hibbert to him. Hibbert actually jumped in the air, and all James had to do was jump into Hibbert with a shot and draw a foul for a chance to tie the game with two free throws.
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Instead, he made the riskier play of throwing the ball into the corner to Chris Bosh, who missed a contested 3-pointer that sealed the Heat's fate.
"I was able to get in the paint, drew two, saw CB in the corner at his sweet spot, thought we got a pretty good look and you live with the result."
If James' five fouls had an effect on his decision in the closing seconds with the game on the line, he wasn't saying.
He entered the game with five fouls with 10:30 left in the game and the Heat trailing 69-62. He missed three shots and had a turnover in his first three minutes of the fourth. He got to the line on a 3-point attempt but missed one of the three, leaving the Heat with a 77-73 deficit with 7:05 left in the game.
He hit a big 3-pointer with 3:26 left to tie the game at 81, but didn't score any more, finishing with a career playoff low. James did have a game-saving block of a George Hill layup with 22 seconds left that kept the Heat in the game for a few more seconds.
According to an ESPN halftime stat, the Heat were plus-13 in the scoring without James and minus-4 with James in the first half as the Heat had a 42-33 halftime lead.
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