LeBron James Suffered Serious Hand Injury After Game 1

LeBron James suffered a self-inflicted injury to his right hand after the Cavaliers‘ loss to the Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin and Brian Windhorst reported.

James’ injury occurred after he punched a whiteboard in the Cavaliers’ locker room out of frustration, a source told ESPN. The ESPN report noted that James underwent two MRIs during the NBA Finals and sported a cast when he was not practicing, playing or visible to reporters.

“I let the emotions get the best of me and pretty much played the last three games with a broken hand,” James said after the Cavaliers were defeated in Game 4.

A visibly upset James took issue with a controversial call that resulted in a charge on Kevin Durant being overturned into an offensive foul late in the fourth quarter. Also, teammate J.R. Smith lost track of the score, forcing the game into overtime, where the Cavaliers’ ended up losing 124-114. It’s clear that frustration carried over into the Cleveland locker room postgame.

The injury was reported after the Cavaliers were swept out of the NBA Finals. ESPN noted that the hand injury helps explain the decline in James’ outside shooting, as he went 5-for-19 on shots 10 feet and out in the remaining three games.

Despite the injuries to his hand and his eye, the 33-year-old James had a strong series statistically, averaging 34.0 PPG, 10.0 APG and 8.5 RPG.

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