LeBron, admittedly an ‘easy target,’ preps for Game 2 rebound

SAN ANTONIO — LeBron James won’t know exactly how his body will react in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday until he gets to Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday. But until that time comes in a presumably air conditioned AT&T Center, James has gone and will go about business as usual.

That includes criticisms that may transform James into the world’s easiest target.

“I don’t think it, I know it,” James said Saturday about being that target.

So James, whose Game 1 leg cramps became world news, prepped with the Heat who seek to extend their NBA record to 13 straight victories following a playoff loss. They were in a 1-0 hole to San Antonio last year and tied the Finals then and know a repeat would be more attainable with a healthy James.

“I’m going to get some work done today, but there is no way to test my body for what I went through,” James said. “The conditions are nowhere near extreme as they [were], unless I decide to run from here to the hotel. That’s the only way I would be able to test my body out.”

Because the Heat stay about 10 miles from where they practiced, that notion was quickly snuffed. So James stuck with the usual training room goodies: ice, stretching, a lot of fluids plus cardio work.

“I’m doing well, doing a lot better,” said James who has vowed to play in Game 2 after his fourth quarter meltdown through cramps in the loss to the Spurs in the stifling, AC malfunctioning AT&T Center. “The soreness is starting to get out. I’m feeling better than I did yesterday and with another day, I should feel much better [Sunday].”

“He’s feeling better, moving around. Yesterday was all about rest and hydration and building his body back up,” coach Erik Spoelstra said.

The failure to answer the bell for nearly seven minutes, including the final four, of the decisive fourth quarter brought a new round of criticism of James, who limped to the bench after a driving score that got the Heat within two before they lost by 15.
James has heard criticism before, will hear it again. That whole target thing, it goes with the territory.

“I just am,” James said. “I don’t know. Because I’ve been in front of the camera and the camera has been in front of me since I was 15 years old.

“From being an adolescent kid just playing the game of basketball because he loves it as a hobby, to now playing as a professional. To succeeding, going to the top, to falling off the mountain, to going up to the top again. You guys have seen everything that my life has had to offer since I was a 15‑-year-‑old kid.

“So I think that has a lot to do with it. Half of my life I’ve been in front of this, so it makes me an easy target.”

Now he has to trust his body will not fail him again.

“It’s a mental challenge,” said teammate Dwyane Wade, who has battled knee injury demons in his career. “When you feel you’ve done everything that you could, before the game, getting prepared for the game, physically you might be more ready than mentally. … When you come off a cramping game, no matter how many days you have in between, it might be a move that you make, it might tighten up real quick, something might tighten up in your body.”

James said he has done what he can and from here on, there’s not much else to do.

“Obviously I felt the extreme measures, but I wasn’t the only one out there on the floor,” James said. “So you just play and you worry about results later.

“You can’t think about what may happen in the third or fourth quarter. Live in the moment.”