INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- LeBron James was nowhere to be seen, keeping a low profile.
Just as he did in Game 3.
James did not address the media Monday, hours after one of the worst postseason games of his career, an 11-point, six-turnover performance in a 111-108 loss to the Boston Celtics that gave the Eastern Conference finals a little juice.
The performance prompted the usual speculation and suspicion about James: Is he hurt? Was he sending a message to his teammates? What happened?
"It was a weird game," Cavs Coach Tyronn Lue said. "A weird-feeling game."
It was an uncharacteristically passive performance by James, who had scored at least 30 points in eight consecutive playoff games and imposed his will on the Celtics in the series' first two games: 117-104 and 130-86 victories by the Cavs.
But James wasn't himself Sunday night. He passed up shots, and made mental and physical mistakes normally reserved for others. He took just three shots and didn't attempt a free throw in the fourth quarter.
He went scoreless over the final 16 minutes.
James accepted responsibility afterward, saying simply "I didn't have it" during a postgame news conference that was preceded by a run-in with a heckling fan in the hallway.
"He's got to be aggressive, get downhill, play like he's been playing, play confident," Cavs forward J.R. Smith said. "That's what I always think, when people of his stature or people like him, you've got to play confident the whole night and play aggressive. It's the Eastern Conference finals. It's not enough for him. For what he does, what he brings, it's not enough.
"He knows that. We know that. Just expect him to be better in Game 4."
The series resumes tonight at Quicken Loans Arena before returning to Boston on Thursday for a Game 5 that didn't appear necessary until the Celtics stormed back from 21 down and won when Avery Bradley's three-pointer fell with 0.01 seconds left.
It was Boston's first outing since guard Isaiah Thomas was shut down with a hip injury, and the Celtics showed they're capable counter-punchers.
"You obviously hear people saying that it's all about how you respond, and we don't feel like people believed in us and counted us out," Bradley said. "But that just put another chip on our shoulder, which I think is good. I hope we can continue to play with that chip on our shoulder and come out the same way next game."
Boston's comeback was fueled by Thomas' replacement, Marcus Smart, who made 7 of 10 three-pointers and scored 27 points. The Cavs chose to go under screens, giving Smart room to shoot, and he burned them badly.
"Marcus Smart made 15 out of 77 off-the-dribble threes this year," Lue said, defending his defensive plan on Smart. "He made some last night."
As Lue spoke to a large group of reporters and some Cavs players got in extra shots after practice, James was noticeably absent from the floor. Usually, he hangs around to work on his game, but on this day No. 23 wasn't visible.
Lue said James was "in good spirits" and that no one was pinning the loss on him.
"No blame. We're all to blame," Lue said. "We lost; it happens. For a guy who played great for five straight months, he's got to have a bad game sooner or later. He's human. He didn't shoot the ball well. It wasn't his ordinary game. But Kevin [Love] and Kyrie [Irving] had it going early and they played well, so it kind of got him out of rhythm a little bit in that first half.
"That's no excuse. They played well, but we've just got to play better, be more physical."
Sports on 05/23/2017