LeBron James Sports Game-Winning Jumper to Tie Series With Bulls

It was redemption time for LeBron James on Sunday night after he scored a buzzer beater with just 1.5 seconds on the clock, tying the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Chicago Bulls Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series to 2-2.

It was an 86-84 victory for the Cavs, thanks to the last-second contribution of James, who, according to Yahoo Sports, made his winning jumper despite Bulls' Jimmy Butler's very strong defense against him for the entire game.

"Butler was clearly wary of letting James grab a lob or post-up position in the final seconds of the contest, and pushed him into a desperate long 2-pointer," Yahoo Sports added.

Sports Illustrated explained that James rejected coach David Blatt's play which called for the star player to inbound the ball with just a second and a half left in the game.

"To be honest, the play that was drawn up, I scratched it. I just told coach, 'Give me the ball.' We're either going to go to overtime or I'm going to win it for us. It was that simple," James said in the Sports Illustrated report.

He said that he was instructed to take the ball out but revealed that he had another plan to end the game in their favor.

"There's no way I'm taking the ball out, unless I can shoot it over the backboard and it goes in.' I told him, 'Have somebody else take the ball out, give me the ball, and everybody get out of the way," the Cavs player added.

James' teammate and guard JR Smith also said that there was doubt among other players after Blatt gave his instruction to James.

"I'm like, 'Are you sure?' ... Once we figured out who was definitely taking the ball out, I was sure [James] was going to do it," Smith was quoted by Sports Illustrated as saying.

For his part, Sports Illustrated noted that Blatt recognized James' effort to win the game and to perfectly ace that jumper. "We wanted to throw it right in over the shoulder. Let him just take the shot, and he did. Great play," Blatt said.

Meanwhile, Bulls point guard Derrick Rose had this to say during the post-game press conference.

"This game is already over. I love our mentality, the way we were talking in the locker room. We know we had an opportunity to put them away and we didn't. We got a lot of veteran guys that know that," Rose said, as quoted by the Chicago Tribune

The two teams will again face each other on Tuesday in Cleveland.