LeBron scored 16 straight before the Pacers even made a field goal in Game 2
HOW DO YOU STOP HIM?
There’s nothing in sports quite like LeBron James when he decides he’s done screwing around. After losing Game 1 against the Indiana Pacers over the weekend, breaking his streak of 21 straight first round wins, James decided just that.
He scored 13 straight points before the Pacers scored once.
It was a remarkable start to Game 2, even by remarkable LeBron James standards. The game was literally 13-0, with every point coming from James, before the Pacers got a point at the free throw line. James hit another three-pointer and assisted on a Kevin Love triple before Indiana finally called their second timeout of the game. The score was 19-3, not even six minutes had elapsed, and they were already in danger of being run off the floor.
Here’s that shot, taken with absolutely zero hesitation. That’s the type of mood he was in.
LeBron fires from 3!
— NBA (@NBA) April 18, 2018
LBJ scores the first 16 for @cavs and CLE leads 19-3 in Q1!#WhateverItTakes pic.twitter.com/acl2ZOOxUW
But don’t worry, he was hitting shots like this, too.
First 13 PTS to LeBron! @cavs lead 13-1 in Cleveland.
— NBA (@NBA) April 18, 2018
: @NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/LH0g37bun9
And this.
LeBron starts play with the short pull-up and has the games first 6 points!#WhateverItTakes x #Pacers
— NBA (@NBA) April 18, 2018
: @NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/5qt2K8mkd8
And a little later, this entirely too easy one.
Make it 18 for The King!
— NBA (@NBA) April 18, 2018
James' #NBAPlayoffs career high for points in any quarter is 21.#WhateverItTakes @NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/iqwqDuB2gT
This was all according to LeBron’s plan
In Game 1, it took James about 10 minutes to attempt his first field goal. It came with a purpose, it seemed — James was purposefully trying to get his teammates, some of them playing in the postseason for the first time, involved and ready for a long playoffs run. James doesn’t want to do everything, but after an opening loss, he decided he had to. And ... well, yeah, he did.
It also helped that just about a minute into the game, Victor Oladipo picked up two fouls and was subbed out of the game. (It was probably a mistake, but that’s another problem altogether.)
Tyronn Lue said that he wanted James to be a little more aggressive to start Game 2, and clearly James agreed. Anyway, James is still The King, and Game 2 was another incredible postseason moment from him.

