Cleveland Ponders the Unthinkable

• CLEVELAND — The questions have moved beyond the suspect elbow to LeBron James’s head, his slumped shoulders, his pulse, his spirit and his legacy. A playoff defeat this devastating, and a performance this inexplicable, practically requires a full body scan. CLEVELAND — The questions have moved beyond the suspect elbow to LeBron James’s head, his slumped shoulders, his pulse, his spirit and his legacy. A playoff defeat this devastating, and a performance this inexplicable, practically requires a full body scan.

On Tuesday night, the Cavaliers were humiliated by the Boston Celtics, 120-88, and pushed to the brink of playoff elimination. James was strangely passive and ultimately ineffective. He took 14 shots, missed 11, and drifted in and out of the offense. At times, he seemed oddly detached from the game and his teammates.
It was not what anyone expected from a two-time most valuable player and the league’s pre-eminent star — not with the Cavaliers’ title hopes at stake and James’s future hanging in the balance.