LeBron James Finals Re-Watch Diary: Game 4, 2007 NBA Finals

LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers get close, but they had too many crucial failures to extend their series against the Spurs.

During the NBA’s indefinite hiatus, I will be rewatching every game of LeBron’s NBA Finals career. Every Finals game from the last 20 years is available to NBA League Pass subscribers on the NBA app or through apps like YouTube TV. We will be going chronologically through LeBron’s Finals career.

Previous Games

Game 1, 2007 NBA Finals

Game 2, 2007 NBA Finals

Game 3, 2007 NBA Finals

The Cavs are down 3-0 and the crowd is once again hyped as they are searching for their first-ever NBA Finals franchise victory. Ilgauskas is called for a violation on the tip-off, giving the ball to Spurs. What would the Uncut Gems folks do with that one? The broadcast then shows that the Cavs have only been swept once before in the playoffs, back in 1993 against the Chicago Bulls. It would happen again in 2018. Gotta give it to the Cavs franchise though, they only get swept by champions.

I know that a lot of folks like to break awards down to Heisman-type moments, like Paolo Uggetti at The Ringer. Parker just had one. He went end to end, blowing by the Cavs defense and got the ball off the glass JUST before LeBron missed the chase down. If only Andre Iguodala had studied the Tony Parker game film. And now a driving Ginobili lay-up, that tandem was underrated, gives the Spurs a 17-16 lead. So once again, the Cavs play high-energy ball on both ends but are trailing. Maybe my Parker hatred is just jealousy that he was married to Eva Longoria?

The Cavs finally get LeBron into a set with some movement. Eric Snow screens for Varejao, who sets a screen for LeBron (screening the screener!), coming off of an initial screen from Marshall. It leads to a foul for Bowen, but this is the kind of stuff that the Cavs didn’t bring out enough in Games 1, 2 or 3. It was all too simple, but simple adjustments could have made things more interesting for the Cavs offense. See, Mike Brown is good, he just didn’t know what was good until it was too late.

A Ginobili 3-pointer makes it 30-25 and also, LeBron is being attended to on the bench. He has a cut on his knee and it’s getting taped up. LeBron gets back in shortly and the offensive rebounds for the Cavs keep coming. They were first in the league in offensive rebounds, no wonder they brought in JJ Hickson so soon after! Eric Snow dimes up Big Z and it’s a 32-31 game. But Tony Parker hits another uncharacteristic 3-pointer, this time from the corner. He has 13 in the first half, those are the kind of Heisman moments that get you the Finals MVP, even if Duncan was the best player on the floor every game.

After a Drew Gooden basket, the ABC broadcast lets us know that LeBron James just had a child, his second, Bryce Maximus. Now Stuart Scott tells us that LeBron originally wanted to name him Maximus, because of the movie Gladiator with Russell Crowe that won the 2001 Oscar for Best Picture, but he allowed it to be a middle name because his future wife Savannah liked the name Bryce. He also got the first choice on naming their first child, LeBron James Jr, who you know today as Bronny James.

The Cavs have clawed back into this game and made it a 44-40 score. ABC is now showing a bunch of the players Bruce Bowen has guarded in the playoffs. Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Steve Nash, Deron Williams and now LeBron James. Honestly, a pretty cool montage if you loved basketball in the mid-2000s.

Duncan and Oberto just worked the two-man game to get Duncan free-throws and honestly, now I know why Duncan did a Motorcycle Diaries tour through South America with Oberto. This guy rules. He probably knows all the best churrasco spots in the Argentine countryside.

Also, the Spurs continue to be perfect on defense. No matter who does anything on the Cavs, they are covered completely. The Spurs defense is just suffocating and inspiring in the way that they never give up on perfecting their scheme. Also, another one of my favorite subplots of the series is Robert Horry physically harming LeBron James before checking on him. Horry hits LeBron across the face, a foul is called and Horry is very worried for LeBron’s well-being. This is how you know he’s an elite role guy.

A Boobie Gibson 3-pointer cracks the 50-point mark for the Cavs just before the 4th quarter, making it 60-52 Spurs to go into the 4th quarter. The Cavs have 12 minutes. Now Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, both EMPLOYEES OF ABC, are saying Tony Parker should be the MVP as the best player in the series. I mean, maybe?

In the fourth quarter, I notice there is a woman yelling near the microphone on every Spurs offensive possession. She keeps yelping and making weird noises. Did this lady show up during the other Cavs Finals? I feel like I heard her during those Golden State series. Anyway, feel free to mute gameplay during this time.

Varejao ties it with a layup at 66-66 and LeBron gets his 9th assist. The Cavs were a scrappy bunch, even if they weren’t a fun offensive team. They were grinders. But Ginobili helps slow down the bootstraps story by making a 3-pointer to make it 69-66 and LeBron can’t answer.

A possession that starts with a Parker-Duncan pick and roll goes into a Duncan-Ginobili DHO and Ginobili scores on the drive. It’s 76-69 and the game is over. Fans are leaving in Cleveland. The Cavs were a squad, but the Spurs were too stacked. No shame in the loss, but it will be a few years before LeBron gets to taste this stage of basketball again.

Damon Jones hits a garbage 3-pointer to help the Cavs cover a 2.5-point spread, but they lost and LeBron will have to wait four years before he’s here again. We will see you next week to see how LeBron learns from this first NBA Finals experience, four years later, as a member of the Miami Heat.

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LeBron James Finals Re-Watch Diary: Game 2, 2007 NBA Finals

LeBron James is more aggressive after a disappointing Game 1 but foul trouble and the Spurs shooters stopped a potentially great night.

Previous Games

Game 1, 2007 NBA Finals

Game 2 Rewatch Diary

Mike Breen relays to the audience that LeBron James said he will be more aggressive in this game after he went 4 for 16. Dick Bavetta, whom you may know from racing Charles Barkley, is the crew chief tonight.

Despite the bad foot, Mike Brown really wants to get Larry Hughes going and they start the first half of Game 2 the way the start every half in the first two games, trying to get Hughes a midrange pull-up. It’s a miss but LeBron rebounds it and puts in for the first points of the game. It took him until the third quarter to get a field goal in Game 1. An early encouraging sign for LeBron, but the game quickly goes sideways, due in part to LeBron’s aggression and as well as a lack of calculated risk-taking by Mike Brown.

LeBron is driving, looking for rebounding opportunities and making things happen, but then he picks up his 2nd foul less than three minutes in the game. Brown, much to the chagrin of Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, decides to take LeBron out with the Spurs up 8-4. It’s Boobie Gibson time, the Cavs leading scorer from Game 1. But without LeBron, the game quickly gets out of hand on both ends.

I came off as a Parker hater after Game 1 and while I still think Duncan is the biggest reason they won, Parker hits layup after layup to make the lead double-digits in the blink of an eye. The Cavs consistently have no answer for a properly run pick and roll. I can only imagine how badly the 2007 Suns would have destroyed them.

Mark Jackson gets his wish! Eric Snow is in! Snow knocked the ball away from Parker and showed that maybe Jackson has a point. Drew Gooden just had his jumper sent by old Robert Horry, who is in at stretch 4 while Duncan plays center. Also, I’m apologizing to Mark Jackson. Eric Snow knows what he’s doing, he just can’t play the minutes he used to when he was the second guard on the 2001 Sixers. But he’s giving the Cavs a bit of competence while they wait for Mike Brown to finally put LeBron back in.

LeBron is in the game again to start the 2nd quarter and misses a 20-footer with the Cavs down 28-17. At least he’s shooting. LeBron keeps shooting, double-teams or not. He’s really in his Mamba Mentality tonight, but truthfully it’s about 85% full Mamba. But he’s at least a live wire for the Cavs offense that has been sleepwalking for the last quarter on their way to 16 points. He ended up taking 21 shots, but I came away wondering if he should have taken a few more.

Later in the quarter we finally get something fun. LeBron in transition! A steal from Gibson sets him up. Tony Parker just got called for another travel. This crew loved a travel call. While we are here, I’m going to rank the top 5 Cavs on this team. Mostly because this is now a 58-30 Spurs lead, which in this series is 60 points.

1. LeBron

2. Boobie

3. Sasha

4. Andy

5. Illgauskas/Donyell Marshall

The Spurs come out a little slow to start and the Cavs remembered that they are in the NBA Finals. Hughes did a good job setting up a midrange J on the pick and roll for Gooden, but Gooden is clearly not helping as much as Varejao. LeBron to Sasha for 3 and the Cavs have it down to 21! But he Spurs are going for the kill. Horry just blocked Gooden again and the Spurs drivers have plenty of room to roam. Also, Ratatouille is coming soon to theaters!

This is officially the Horry game. A 3 by Horry puts the Spurs up 87-60. Now Pop gets Horry a curtain call and he gets a standing ovation from the Spurs crowd. By the end of the night, Horry had five blocks and it felt like all of them were on Gooden. Meanwhile, Manu Ginobili had 25 off the bench.

Gibson gets a jumper to cut the lead to 14. The Spurs also have Brent Barry and Tony Parker in together, which is bad for several reasons which you can google about. Pop is doing a rope-a-dope, but we should give credit to the Cavs. They didn’t knock off the Pistons with a magic bullet. The Cavs have the lead down to 10 and now 9 after a LeBron take and they aren’t giving in.

The Cavs made this game somewhat interesting in the 4th quarter, in large part due to putting Andy Varejao at center with LeBron and three shooters in Boobie, Damon Jones, and Donyell Marshall, a formula that has proven to be optimal for maximizing LeBron nearly a decade and a half later. But it was a move that was made too late.

Parker just had a spinning pirouette of a finish and maybe that’s why they gave him the MVP. Or maybe was it because he was engaged to Eva Longoria and it was rigged as a marketing move to promote ABC’s Desperate Housewives? I’m just saying anything is on the table. And now an And-1 for LeBron over Duncan! This game is way better than the last one.

But the Spurs get it together before a full collapse happens. Bron tries to drive on Robert Horry but he can’t finish and takes a tumble. Horry then is late getting back on offense because he’s helping LeBron up. Here we see 22-year old LeBron still not knowing exactly when and where to attack. But Horry knows how great the guy he stopped is. Then LeBron commits another turnover as the Spurs blitzing his pick and rolls leads to his 6th turnover of the game. Then Ginobili hit a four-point play, with one of the rare missteps for Boobie Gibson in the first two games. Gibson ended with 15 off the bench.

All in all, LeBron played better and the game was much more interesting late than the previous one. LeBron finished with 25 points on 9 of 21 shooting to go with seven rebounds and six assists. He also played 35 of the 36 remaining minutes in the game after his first-quarter foul-trouble. Much, much better overall. But were their moves the Cavs could have made earlier? I think there are. Tomorrow, the series and LeBron’s Finals career shifts back to his home of Northeast Ohio. See you then.

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