CLEVELAND, April 26, 2018 - With the pivotal Game 5 of the first-round series between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers hanging in the balance in the closing seconds, LeBron James did what he's been doing for 15 years: took over, saved the day, and delivered his team a desperately needed victory. James hit a buzzer-beating, game-winning 3-pointer over the outstretched arms of Thaddeus Young, providing a thrilling ending to a heartstopping fourth quarter and giving the Cavaliers a 98-95 win over the visiting Pacers to take their first lead in the best-of-seven series at 3-2. The Cavs will now look to close out the stunned Pacers back in Indianapolis in Game 6 on Friday night. Asked by TNT's Allie LaForce what he told his teammates in the huddle before the Cavs' final possession, James recalled a simple message. "Just give me the ball," he said. "Give me the ball. They had a foul to give, so I wanted to go quick so they couldn't give up that foul, because we had no more timeouts. So I was able to turn and get to my spot." If the sequence felt familiar to you ... well, you're not alone. "It was like deja vu for a regular-season game we had versus Minnesota, where I got a block on the other end and then the game-winner," James said. Then again, maybe you're thinking of that time James did nearly this exact same thing in the playoffs, just about nine years ago. The silver lining, Pacers fans: LeBron's Cavs lost that series to the Orlando Magic in six games. (Then again, they weren't one win away from closing out at the time.) The Cavs were in position to win it on that final-second shot because of James, too. On the previous Pacers trip, James took the defensive assignment on Victor Oladipo, knowing Indiana's All-Star would have the ball in his hands in a game tied at 95. Oladipo drove on James, using a lefty in-and-out dribble to get James leaning the wrong way before bursting into the lane and, with half a step on LeBron, elevating for a layup to give the Pacers the lead. If nothing else, it would seem to be close enough — in the closing seconds of a tied game in a tied playoff series — to get the refs to review the play. And yet, despite the league's replay rules allowing referees to review "situations in which they are not reasonably certain whether a goaltending or basket interference violation was called correctly during the last two minutes of the fourth period and during all of overtime," that didn't happen here because goaltending wasn't called on the floor in the moment. So: block stands, Cavs ball. (The Milwaukee Bucks feel your pain, Victor.) Then again, maybe this was some cosmic "ball don't lie" by the basketball gods after the way the Pacers got possession on the previous play. With the score tied at 95 and 33 seconds to go, LeBron went to work in pursuit of a go-ahead bucket. He drove on Young, but the veteran power forward muscled him up along the baseline, forcing James to pick up his dribble under the basket. As LeBron tried to pass to the far corner, Young swiped down and knocked the ball loose; it bounced up and hit James on the arm before going out of bounds, a costly turnover that gave the Pacers the ball back with 26.3 seconds to go and a chance to go for the win.
