It was a clean look.
But was there a better option?
The Cleveland Cavaliers were down two points to the Chicago Bulls with 8.7 seconds left when J.R. Smith missed a free throw and grabbed the offensive rebound. Smith dished to Kevin Love, who quickly moved the ball to an open Matthew Dellavedova, who took the shot and missed it badly.
LeBron — who was at the top of the key and the next pass — wanted to take that shot, he told Chris Haynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
LeBron James said with way he was shooting, would have liked Matthew Dellavedova to make one more pass to him for potential game-winning 3.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) April 10, 2016
Of course,\ LeBron wanted to take the last shot — he’s LeBron James, he should want to take that shot. I’d be worried if he didn’t want the rock under pressure.
The other question here is would you prefer the hot hand or the guy that’s been the better shooter all season? Dellavedova is shooting 12 percentage points better from three than LeBron, but Delly was 1-of-4 from three for the game while LeBron was 4-of-5.
It’s not like Dellavedova took a Kobe-esque contested jumper over a double team (or triple, in Kobe’s case), he took a clean shot. LeBron may be frustrated, but if you get an open shot under pressure you take it.
The Bulls won the game 105-102, keeping their very slim playoff hopes alive for one more day.