LeBron James overruled David Blatt's play call before hitting buzzer beater
Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James says head coach David Blatt wanted him to inbound the ball on the final play of Sunday's Game 4 but he overruled the coach. Instead, James hit a game-winning jumper as time expired to give the Cavaliers an 86-84 series-tying win.
"To be honest, the play that was drawn up, I scratched it," James told reporters. "I just told coach, 'Give me the ball.' We're either going to go to overtime or I'm going to win it for us. It was that simple.
"I was supposed to take the ball out," James continued. "I told coach, 'There's no way I'm taking the ball out, unless I can shoot it over the backboard and it goes in.' I told him, 'Have somebody else take the ball out, give me the ball, and everybody get out of the way.'"
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[daily_cut.NBA]ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported in March that James assumed the majority of the Cavs' play-calling duties. "LeBron will call the play. David Blatt will see what play LeBron calls, and he will repeat it to the team," Windhorst said on a podcast with Bill Simmons.
"At times, according to the flow of the game, somebody may call out a play,” Blatt told Cleveland.com. "I don't think that's unusual, no. Certainly if you know what you're doing, you have a plan going in. That's obviously not an all-the-time case, but it's going to happen during the course of the game, sure."
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- Dan Gartland
