LeBron James made his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers lineup on Tuesday after missing two weeks with left knee pain and a strained back. His overall form after the longest layoff of his professional career looked to be a matter of some debate in the early going — on the plus side, sweet dunk; on the minus side, not-so-sweet transition defense — but his facilitating game sure seemed to be on point.
Don't believe me? Just ask Cavaliers head coach David Blatt, who found himself on the receiving end of James' assistance in moving away from the referees so that he didn't get a technical foul while complaining about an offensive foul call on James during the second quarter:
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That's the way it seemed to me, at least — Blatt was furious and about to get himself T'd up, and James wanted to step in front to A) plead his own case and B) give his coach the chance to cool off. Because of the nature of LeBron's action, though — literally pushing the first-year Cavs coach back toward the bench — and the context in which it comes, with Cleveland scuffling at 19-19, and folks' memories stretching back to that time that James bumped Erik Spoelstra in the midst of some early-season struggles during his first year with the Miami Heat, LeBron's physical suggestion that his coach take a load off raised more than a few eyebrows on Tuesday night.
Including, it seemed, new Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith:
That look you're seeing is J.R. wondering why he never thought of just moving any of his past coaches out of the way so he could do the thing he wanted to do. Can it be that it was all so simple, all this time?
While it's unlikely that James' push speaks to any larger beef broiling between Bron-Bron and Blatt, it's equally unlikely that this clip — divorced from the actual in-game context in which it occurred, natch — won't garner an awful lot of the wrong kind of attention for a Cavs team that's had more than its fair share of that this season.
If Cleveland can begin to right the ship and rack up some wins with James back in the fold, stuff like this will all fade to the far recesses of our minds, like the Spo bump in the aftermath of four straight Finals trips and two NBA championships. If the Cavs continue to flail, though, every little thing — every jolt, shove and bristle — will keep generating headlines and headshakes.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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