LeBron: ‘Talk is cheap’

DALLAS — After Game 4, Dallas Mavericks guard DeShawn Stevenson said he thought Miami Heat star LeBron James “checked out” of the game from an offensive standpoint. James finished with eight points, the lowest playoff game output of his career.

On Wednesday, Miami reporters peppered Stevenso

n with questions in an attempt to clarify what he meant. Did he truly mean to say that James “checked out” of an NBA Finals game?

“When I said ‘checked out’ I didn’t mean anything negative,” Stevenson said. “I just think when you have players like Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, you tend, when they have it going, to defer.”

However Stevenson meant it, it certainly was construed as a negative by reporters. And Stevenson didn’t exactly back off of his original premise.

“It was very surprising — him, with his athletic ability, to put pressure on us, I think he just kind of faded out,” Stevenson said Wednesday. “I don’t know if it was because Dwyane Wade was playing well, but it helped us out.

“At the same time, he’s a player that can get it going at any time.”

Stevenson and James have guarded one another for several years, dating to when Stevenson was at Washington and James at Cleveland.

“He’s been talking a long time, since our Washington-Cleveland days,” James said. “I don’t let that get to us. We’re playing well. It’s a three-game series. Talk is cheap.

“You have to play the game of basketball. Let the scores and the plays define the game. We don’t get caught up in that too much.”

Earlier in the week, Stevenson made headlines when he described James and Wade as “great, great actors” for their ability to get referees to call fouls. Stevenson said Wednesday that he doesn’t worry much about his latest comments lighting a fire under James because, Stevenson said, he didn’t mean them in a derogatory way.

“But at the same time, great players just need a little thing to get them going. You don’t want to say anything bad or anything, but I think he’s talented enough that he can use anything in the paper to kind of boost his ego.”

“I just feel like he wasn’t in attack mode,” Stevenson said. “I feel like when he’s in attack mode, he could put a lot of pressure on us. I don’t know what was happening last night, but I just feel like me, playing against him all through the years, that wasn’t himself.”

Does he expect James to respond with a big Game 5?

“I think he has to,” Stevenson said. “I think he has the same pressure that Jason Terry had, everybody saying that he had to come up and step up. Basically, Miami, this is his team. He has to go out there and produce. And I think he’s going to come out strong.”