Down 3-0 to the Golden State Warriors, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers are just one game away from getting swept out of the Finals.

Although they had a real shot to win two of the three games, especially Game 1, Cleveland simply didn’t get the job done and hasn’t been able to overcome the talent deficiency that always occurs when taking the court against the four-headed monster of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.

All four of those players have the ability to go off on any given night. As seen in Game 3, Durant had a playoff career-high 43 points and put the team on his back when the other three struggled. Curry has set a plethora of three-point records, both from a cumulative perspective and from an individual game perspective. Thompson once had 37 points in a single quarter. Green can turn in a triple-double on any given night and is one of the best defenders in the league.

While their talent is undeniable, LeBron noted that one thing that they all possess might be even more important: basketball IQ.

"In order to win you've got to have talent, but you've got to be very cerebral too," James said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. "Listen, we're all NBA players. Everybody knows how to put the ball in the hoop. But who can think throughout the course of the game?”

"This is so challenging for me to sit up here and say because people who really don't know the game don't really know what I'm talking about,” James added. “They just think that you go out, and, 'Oh, LeBron, you're bigger and faster and stronger than everybody, you should drive every single time and you should dunk every single play and you should never get tired, never.' Like it's a video game and you went on the options and you turned down fatigue all the way to zero and injuries all the way down to zero.”

The role of IQ

LeBron lumped IQ with decision-making and claimed that Cleveland’s lack of it might have caused two of their three losses. JR Smith’s gaffe in Game 1 certainly received a lot of attention.

"We have a lot of talent as well," James noted. "We've been in a position where we could win two out of these three games. So what do we have to do? Do we have to make more shots? Is it we have to have our minds into it a little bit more?”

Against a team like the Warriors, James understands that making stupid mistakes simply can’t happen.

"When you make mistakes, they make you pay," James said. "Because they're already more talented than you are, but they also have the minds behind it, too, and they also have the championship DNA.”

We will see if the Cavs take a more cerebral approach to a must-win Game 4 in front of their home fans.