NBA Playoffs: LeBron James Hits Game-Winner Against Bulls In Game 4

USA Today

The Cleveland Cavaliers headed into Game 4 of their second-round playoff series with the Chicago Bulls down 2-1. LeBron James and company were desperately hoping to tie up the series at two games apiece before heading back to Cleveland for Game 5.

Fortunately for the Cavaliers, the Bulls were without one of their best players with Pau Gasol forced to sit out due to a hamstring issue. Although Cleveland lucked out with Gasol on the bench with an injury, the Cavaliers suffered one of their own with Kyrie Irving playing on a sprained right ankle. Irving clearly wasn’t himself as he finished with 12 points on 2-of-10 shooting and only two assists.

As almost every game in the series has come down to, the Bulls and Cavaliers were neck-and-neck with the game on the line in the fourth quarter. Derrick Rose had some late-game heroics once again with a game-tying layup increasing his point total to a game-high 31, but it wasn’t enough to force overtime.

With one second left on the clock in regulation, the Cavaliers had a catch-and-shoot situation to win the game. Head coach David Blatt drew up a play, but LeBron had other ideas how the game should end saying the following in the huddle, via ESPN:

LeBron James watched his coach draw up the final play — and then drew one up of his own.

“Give me the ball and get out of the way,” he said.

While being guarded by one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, James caught the inbounds pass from Matthew Dellavedova and went straight up over Jimmy Butler on the sideline draining the game-winning shot as the clock expired.

Following LeBron’s game-winning shot, the Cavaliers will hop on a plane back to Cleveland for Game 5 at Quicken Loans Arena. The series is now tied and the plot thickens with the series shifting back to where it began.