Mavs' Stevenson backtracks on LeBron comments

Mavericks guard DeShawn Stevenson said he wasn’t trashing Miami’s LeBron James when he said after Game 4 that James had “checked out” in a performance that netted only eight points.

“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.”

Still, Stevenson said that he was surprised that James was stepping back and allowing others to lead.

“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 has had words for James in the past when the two were rivals in Washington and Cleveland, and James brushed it off as just so much chatter.

“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.”