James: We have to play ‘A plus plus’ to survive Golden State

MANILA, Philippines — LeBron James simply had no answer for the Golden State Warriors in Game Three of the NBA Finals.

“I gave everything I had tonight. So win, lose, or draw, you live with the results,” James said in the post-game presser. “Like I said, they played a really good game as well … they made shots down the stretch.”

The second half pretty much appeared to belong to the Cleveland Cavaliers, until Warriors forward Kevin Durant hit a go-ahead triple with a little over 45 ticks left to snatch the lead from the Cavs.

“Of course, we thought we was going to win,” James said of the stunning turnaround. “We had an opportunity. They had opportunities as well.”

“They made the most of them and we didn’t. We came in the game believing we was going to win for sure,” the four-time league MVP said. “We were playing good basketball. Kyrie (Irving) got going, JR (Smith) got going as well.”

“I can’t go back and think of it right now exactly all possessions that we had in the fourth quarter, but we had some good looks,” he furthered. “They came down and Steph (Curry), one ricocheted off the backboard, he got a tip in, K.D. got a pull-up on Tristan, (Thompson) and then he shoots a bomb in transition.”

And with everybody speculating that fatigue has taken a toll on him, James—who had been in this grand stage eight times in his career—said he simply missed shots.

“I gave everything that I had, so at times throughout the game I was tired, but that's just because I was just playing as hard as I could. I was able to get second and third and fourth winds,” he said.

“We missed shots. I gave everything that I had, so at times throughout the game I was tired, but that's just because I was just playing as hard as I could. But I was able to get second and third and fourth

He also added that he is perfectly aware that the Cavs can’t go back to the exact moment when it all went wrong to rectify when it all went wrong for them.

“It's a miss-or-make league. We make a couple, they miss a couple, and it's the other way around. But it didn't happen that way,” James added.

And it comes without saying that he also knew how steep of a hike this would be and his squad.

“I said it after we won the Eastern Conference Finals that we’re getting ready for a juggernaut. It's probably the most, most firepower I've played in my career. I played against some great teams, but I don't think no team has had this type of firepower,” he said.

“So even when you're playing well, you got to play like A plus plus, because they're going to make runs and they're going to make shots and they got guys that’s going to make plays,” James explained.

“We made enough plays tonight to still win the ball game, but they made a couple more,” he closed.

James and the Cavaliers will try to do the impossible starting tomorrow when they go at it again with the Warriors for Game 4. Tip-off is at 9 a.m., Manila time.