A lot of the story will be that the Tatum hit knocked LeBron woozy and he just wasn't the same after. That might be true, but he hadn't done much of anything in the second quarter before that hit.
I was almost giddy after the first quarter. The Cs had absorbed the best that James had to offer, they were only down 4 and there was no way in the world that he would be able to sustain that kind of effort for four quarters. And with James going off, it tends to take his teammates out of the game to some extent. Not that he isn't also a great passer who involves them. But when the alpha is doing so much, his teammates ultimately join the rest of us in watching him.
I was almost giddy after the first quarter. The Cs had absorbed the best that James had to offer, they were only down 4 and there was no way in the world that he would be able to sustain that kind of effort for four quarters. And with James going off, it tends to take his teammates out of the game to some extent. Not that he isn't also a great passer who involves them. But when the alpha is doing so much, his teammates ultimately join the rest of us in watching him.