CLEVELAND, Ohio - "Controversial" is not a word commonly used to describe the Akron-born MVP.
So when Golden State's Stephen Curry said that another Akron-born (and raised) MVP, LeBron James, was not the reason the Cavaliers lead the 2015 NBA Finals through three games, he most likely wasn't trying to provoke James or knock him down a peg.
And this is after James scored 40 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, and dished out eight assists in 46 (out of a possible 48) minutes of Cleveland's 96-91 win in Game 3 Tuesday night.
"I mean, we all know the accolades he has," Curry began. "He's a great player. He's shooting an OK percentage (shaking his hand for effect) in our eyes. He's getting up a lot of attempts, and anybody that's that much of a volume shooter, which he needs to be for his team, he's going to have points. But the timely ones are the ones that killed us.
"The three late in the fourth quarter, certain easy buckets that you allow him to get. But that's not the issue why we're down 2-1 right now. It's the way we're playing on the offensive end, especially to start games. We'll fix that as we try to even the series."
There are a bunch of side stories going on in this series, and the league's best offense (Golden State) failing to solve the NBA's best defense in the postseason (Cavs) is certainly one.
David Blatt outcoaching Steve Kerr is another, and, of course, somewhere on this list has to be Matthew Dellavedova (20 points, untold number of game-saving hustle plays).
But Curry is mistaken. James is absolutely the issue in this series. He's the issue because he's scored 123 points through three games - the most in Finals history. He was at his very best in the third and fourth quarters on Tuesday, and he is outplaying Curry by a comfortable margin.
James is the common denominator in the equation that has the Cavaliers just two wins shy of its first league championship in team history.
"I don't have a reaction" to Curry's comments, James said afterwards. "I'm just trying to do whatever it takes to help our team win. If it's high-volume shooting, if it's high rebounding, if it's high assists, whatever it takes to help our team."
LeBron James shot 14-of-34 in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
James shot 14-of-34 in Game 3 and is 43-of-107 (40.2 percent) in the series. Since Kevin Love was lost for the playoffs eons ago, James has become a high-volume shooter. Kyrie Irving's surgery over the weekend only means more of a burden upon James to shoot.
That's how James sees it. The Warriors apparently see it that way too, and that's where the problem. Kerr and Golden State's strategy of forcing James into more shots (and taking away his passing game) hasn't worked.
More than once, the Warriors have suggested they were "letting" James score, preferring to limit his teammates. James doesn't prefer the characterization. "I go get 40" he said after Game 1.
They have seldom tried to double-team him, instead allowing Harrison Barnes, Andre Iguodala, and to a lesser extent Draymond Green and Shaun Livingston to try their luck on James alone.
If you like Golden State's defensive scheme, you'd point to the 4-of-22 shooting James suffered through in the second half and overtime of Game 2. Or the tough, contested shots he missed at or near the buzzer of games 1 and 2. Or his 1-of-4 shooting in overtime of Game 1.
But James piled up 19 assists in the last two games, both wins. And he was clutch in the fourth quarter Tuesday night with a momentum-stunting dunk on an alley-oop, a three-pointer with 1:44 left and six consecutive free throws inside of the game's final minute to seal the game. He scored 27 in the second half.
"I'm so outside the box right now," James said. He said he's "not OK" with his high number of shots and low shooting percentage, but that's how he believes the Cavs will win.
"This is a totally different challenge," he said. "I've never played where two All-Stars were out. So it's a different challenge for myself, and it's outside the box, but it's not too far. It's not too far for me to go grab."
Kerr said "obviously LeBron is LeBron, and he poses a lot of problems." His point was there were any number of strategies to defend him, he and his coaching staff spend ample time poring over them, and virtually any plan to stop James is going to have its flaws.
The Warriors are happy to play James one-on-one to a point, but they don't want him getting to the rim. And in that area they suffered another breakdown Tuesday night. James was 11-of-20 in the lane and just 3-of-14 outside of it. He was also 10-of-12 from the foul line.
On the other side is Curry, whose stat line from Game 3 (27 points, seven three-pointers, 10-of-20 shooting) was aided tremendously by a breakout fourth quarter. Curry scored 17 points on five threes during the Warriors' furious comeback from 17-points down.
For the series, Curry is 25-of-63 shooting (39.7 percent). That's a lower percentage than James. Curry also committed six turnovers in Game 3 and is averaging 24 points through three games. Kerr said Curry needed more "life" on Tuesday.
The series is far from over, and Curry is one reason why. Another - as of early Wednesday morning, the Cavs' starting backcourt consisted of one guard (Iman Shumpert) with only one good arm and the other (Dellavedova) at the hospital getting treatment for cramps.
But James is shooting and scoring at an unprecedented rate in the Finals, and it carried Cleveland to two (and nearly three) wins. He's averaging 12 rebounds and 8.3 assists in 142 total minutes, and on Tuesday he gathered four steals.
James picked off a pass from Curry he said he "knew" was coming with 53.9 seconds left and the Cavs up by seven.
"I'm high-volume shooting, but it's not like I'm going out there and I'm high-volume shooting and I'm not doing anything else," James said. "I'm doing everything for our team to help our team win, and that's all that matters."