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 Then he went out on Friday night and killed Boston yet again.
James, who came in averaging 30.1 points per game against Boston,
his highest average against any team, scored eight of his
season-high 41 points in the final 2:02 and the Cleveland Cavaliers
rallied from 19 points down and escaped with a 122-121 victory over
the Celtics.
"Kyrie (Irving) told me to be aggressive and stop being so passive,"
James said the Cavs raised their record to 4-3 in the second coming
of LeBron. "Early in the fourth, he got it going so I kind of laid
back. All you've got to do is talk to me."
"I've always liked to be challenged, either by a coach or a
teammate."
The game ended with the Celtics with the ball and seven seconds to
take a shot off a timeout. But guard Rajon Rondo fumbled his dribble
with about four seconds left and ran out the time before getting an
off-balance shot off too late. It missed, anyway.
"I lost the ball," he said. "Give them credit. They played good
defense and I lost the ball. I didn't get the shot off in time."
The Cavaliers were down, 103-84, in the first minute of the fourth
quarter before Irving, the team's point guard, got hot to keep them
in the game. Irving scored 15 of his 27 points in the fourth
quarter, including three straight 3-pointers early in the quarter.
 Cleveland was down by five when James scored seven points in 51
seconds to give his team the lead. His old-fashioned 3-point play
with 1:11 left turned out to be the final basket of the night -- the
Celtics, plagued by turnovers down the stretch, scoring their final
basket on a Rondo drive with 2:30 left.
"I kind of used this analogy earlier this morning," said James.
"Right now, the young guys are like my kids. They're not accustomed
to reading textbooks. They like I-pads. You have to show them. You
can't just tell them."
The Cavs were outscored, 42-25, in the third quarter, James saying,
"We gave up a 40-point quarter and that's unacceptable if we want to
continue to grow, but we showed growth in the fourth quarter and
that's huge for our team, being a young team."
Rondo dished out 16 assists and grabbed eight rebounds, but scored
just six points and had just one assist in the fourth quarter as
Boston fell to 3-5 by blowing its second double-digit lead at home
in three nights.
"I'm frustrated by it," said Boston coach Brad Stevens. "I want to
be better at it. I thought our energy and togetherness and
sustainability was much better tonight. When things went south, we
came back.
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"You've got to play all 48 (minutes). You've got to be great all 48
against this team."
Center Anderson Varejao added 16 points and forward Kevin Love had
12 points and 15 rebounds for the Cavs. The league's newest Big
Three -- James, Irving and Love -- had 86 points Monday night and 80
points on Friday.
"Kyrie was awesome. LeBron was awesome. And obviously (Love) made
plays, too," said Stevens.
Center Kelly Olynyk led seven Celtics in double figures with 21
points, all in the first three quarters. Forward Jared Sullinger
posted 19 points and 10 rebounds and forward Jeff Green, given the
task of trying to stop James most of the night, also had 19 points.
"I think they are going to surprise a lot of teams this season,"
James said of the Celtics.
NOTES: New Cavaliers coach David Blatt hails from nearby Framingham,
Mass. ... Celtics rookie G Marcus Smart, set to miss another two
weeks with a sprained left ankle, said Thursday, "I felt like my
foot was on fire. Looking back at the video and listening to what
(the announcers) had to say, they thought I broke it for a moment. I
did, too." ... Celtics G Rajon Rondo broke a tie with Paul Pierce
and moved into fourth place on the team's all-time assist list with
4,321. ... Back in Cleveland, the Cavs revealed their special
Christmas Day jerseys, which will have the players' first names on
their backs. ... Boston G Marcus Thornton returned after missing a
game with an ankle injury. He had 12 points in 18 minutes off the
bench. ... The Cavaliers host the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night.
The Phoenix Suns visit the Celtics on Monday night.
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