LeBron James fell asleep on defense (Video)

LeBron James knew the Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t going to lose to the Los Angeles Clippers at home Thursday night, so he felt no need to play defense at the end of the first quarter.

That may be an unfair exaggeration, but there was certainly one play where LeBron appeared to fall asleep:

LeBron falling asleep on defense SMH pic.twitter.com/IEe4iFPVWz

— gifdsports (@gifdsports) January 22, 2016

The Cavs went on to win 115-102, and LeBron scored 22 points and dished out 12 assists. In other words, his mental lapse was not costly.

Still, I don’t think we can apply the same theory we used earlier this season when LeBron sprinted away from a shooter (video here) instead of playing defense. This felt a bit different.