In typical Cleveland Cavaliers fashion this 2018 season, LeBron & co. took a major step back on Tuesday night after showing some signs of life by ripping off five straight wins, including an impressive comeback victory over the current No. 1 seed in the East, the Toronto Raptors. At the end of the day, the team's 98-79 loss to the Miami Heat is irrelevant once the playoffs start, but it does make you wonder if Cleveland was operating at full capacity in sunny South Beach, specifically James, who had his worst game of the month, which for him is still 18 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds (and 6 TOs).
Chances are the Cavs arrived Sunday night after LeBron posterized a few of the Nets in Brooklyn, which gave the squad plenty of time to, let's say, enjoy themselves. We're not accusing them of anything, no, we'll leave that to Shaquille O'Neal, who chalked up the Cavs ugly performance to having a little too much fun on the eve of Tuesday's game. Here's Shaq giving his interpretation of LeBron's postgame interview in one of the funniest videos you'll see all week:
This interpretation confirms Shaq's exact schedule anytime he played in Miami through his career, including his time on the Heat. A little day drinking at the Delano (dartying as the kids call it), stop at the beach, more day drinking, beach, dinner, club, sleep for five hours, show up for the dumbass shoot-around, play in an NBA game. What a life. On a different night, maybe LeBron and the Cavs could have escaped with a win after such an eventful day and night that Shaq describes, but not this time.
One of the main reasons the NBA on TNT works so well is for these off-the-script, no-filter moments like this from Shaq and Barkley. The older they get, the less they care, which can be said for just about anyone. Let's hope "Shaq interpreting postgame interviews" becomes a weekly segment, as long as he doesn't do them while driving a car.
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