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LeBron James Hit Hard In The Face During Pre-Game Warm-Up, Drops 37 Points Against Sixers

By Val Powell
Published on: 19:12 PST, Jan 10, 2016

LeBron James, who has booked trips to the NBA Finals for the last five NBA seasons, showed his human side when he failed to catch a chest pass aimed at his head.

During the pre-game warm-ups of the Cleveland Cavaliers against the Philadelphia 76ers, the four-time MVP is captured on video catching a basic pass, when he was suddenly hit in the face by an errant chest pass.

The pass caught him off guard and hit him square in the face. Fortunately, it seems like LeBron James managed to slightly tilt his head to the side, preventing the ball from hitting his nose.

The pre-game mistake was shared by uploader “Broadcast Director” on Vimeo, and has already garnered almost 24.8 million loops, and counting.

Lebron James, however, just laughed off the mistake as his teammates tried to help him back up on his feet.

Visibly unaffected by the pre-game blooper, James fired on all cylinders against the Sixers on Sunday night, contributing 37 points to the team’s overall score.

The Cavs successfully swept Philadelphia in their season series, which ended with a 95-85 win.

James led a fourth quarter charge against the resilient Sixers and scored 12 of his total points. He also had seven boards and nine assists in the game.

Kevin Love contributed with 15 points and 15 rebounds, while Tristan Thompson had 10 points and 10 boards.

Cleveland got off to a blistering 5-0 start before Sixers coach Brett Brown tried to regroup his players. After a dismal showing from his squad in the first quarter, they managed to slowly get back in the game during the second quarter despite the Cavs’ poor shooting percentage.

In the second frame, Cleveland only shot 29 percent from the field, and only James and Richard Jefferson made it above the 50 percent clip. The half ended 48-47, Cleveland leading.

James led another scoring outburst in the third quarter, helping the team regain its focus in the game. The two-time Finals MVP seemingly scored at will both on the inside and beyond the arc, giving his team the biggest lead of the game at 12 points with three minutes remaining in the third.

In that third quarter run, LeBron James followed a Nerlens Noel miss at the free throw line with a double clutch reverse dunk and “raised the roof” afterwards. The gesture seems like a new way for James to pump himself up as well as his teammates.

Surprisingly, the Sixers found their way back into the game early in the fourth quarter, chipping away the lead to just two points within just a couple of minutes. Sixers rookie Jahlil Okafor tallied 21 points and seven rebounds to lead his team in scoring.

However, it was the playmaking and scoring ability of Ish Smith that kept Philadelphia in the game. Smith had a double-double 18 points and 10 assists, with seven rebounds and a steal.

James went back to his midrange jumpers and drained shots in the middle of the fourth quarter. Another fast break dunk from LeBron James that stretched the Cavs’ lead to 14 with under four minutes remaining seemed like the final nail in the coffin for the Sixers.

Other Cavs scorers J.R. Smith (3-for-12 from deep) and Kyrie Irving (3-for-15) struggled in the game.

Philadelphia slipped to a 4-36 win-loss record, though it seems their acquisition of Ish Smith has been showing its dividends in the last two games.

Meanwhile, LeBron James and the rest of the Cleveland Cavaliers extend their winning streak to seven. They now have a 26-9 record and have won 13 of their last 15 games.

[Image by Patrick Smith/Getty Images]

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