LeBron James has been victimized by a series of hard fouls recently, and predictably, his head coach would like that to stop.
James Harden was suspended a game for kicking LeBron in the groin, and Jonas Valanciunas was called for a flagrant for taking LeBron to the floor two games later.
There were no such antics during Friday night’s loss to the Hawks, but Cavaliers coach David Blatt said that the trend of teams being overly-physical was troublesome nonetheless.
From Jason Lloyd of Ohio.com:“I just think LeBron is getting hit, and getting hit every time he goes to the basket, and half of them are ignored,” he said. “Because of the strength and the power he brings to his drives, it’s easy to overlook a lot of stuff.”
James was belted again tonight going to the basket by DeMarre Carroll, but I didn’t think it was dirty or flagrant. It was just a good, hard foul. Carroll even made a play on the ball. But when it comes on the heels of the Jonas Valanciunas takedown and the James Harden kick, all of these events are coming a little too close together.
“It does seem to be a trend,” Blatt said. “That’s going to happen now and again, but when it’s happening continually that’s worrisome. And it should be worrisome for everybody. Because there’s ways to defend guys and ways to defend guys physically, but there’s a limit and that limit needs to be recognized.”
Carroll committed two fouls against LeBron in this one, but upon further review, neither could be classified as being hard or crossing the line. One was a simple contest as James drove to the basket (likely the play in question), and the other was a reach after LeBron used a spin move to get loose. It’s possible, however, that one of these appeared to be more violent in person.
Regardless of how you view Carroll’s fouls, though, this isn’t something that’s going to change. LeBron is one of the best players in the world, and teams aren’t just going to let him get to the basket without putting a body on him to make his shot attempts as difficult as possible.