LeBron tweets it's 'Now or Never' time at finals

DALLAS – Now or never?

LeBron James is apparently making that his mantra entering Game 5 of the NBA finals.

At 2:27 a.m. Eastern time Thursday, James posted "Now or Never!!" on his Twitter page, and said after the Miami Heat practiced in Dallas later that morning that the tweet was simply a pep talk to himself.

The Heat and Mavericks play Game 5 on Thursday night, knotted at two games apiece.

"That's just how I was feeling at the time, honestly," James said after the shootaround practice. "It was just a personal message to myself. It nothing to do with anyone else besides myself. I was just in the zone at that point."

Obviously, the NBA title will not be awarded Thursday night, so it technically wouldn't be a now-or-never scenario for James, the Mavericks, the Heat or anyone else.

But James' teammates said they understand what he means.

"It's now or never," Heat forward Chris Bosh said. "We have to play this like it's our last. It's our last road game of the year. We're the best road team in the league and we might as well end out on a good note."

Game 6 is Sunday in Miami and, if necessary, Game 7 would be there Tuesday night.

James found it mildly humorous that the tweet generated so much attention. He's coming off his lowest-scoring postseason game in 90 career outings, an eight-point night in Game 4, after which he's heard two days of criticism about not carrying more of the offensive workload.

"Whatever I do ... someone is going to say something about it," James said.

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