CLEVELAND -- It was exactly 11:43 p.m. ET when LeBron James, wearing a cream-colored sweater and sneakers, walked through the exit door next to the loading dock and strode to his car for what may have been his final drive home from the place he has called home for seven years.

What you couldn't get a reading on was how James was feeling in his soul, the soul that he tried to claim had not been damaged by the ringing in his ears caused by the boos during Cleveland's 120-88 drubbing at the hands of the Boston Celtics -- boos unlike anything James had ever heard before in Cleveland.

If this was his last home game here, that's what they sent him off with.

"I spoil a lot of people with my play," James said in one of the few borderline candid comments he made in his postgame interview. "When you have a bad game here or there, you've had three bad games in a seven-year career, then it's easy to point that out. So you got to be better.

"I put a lot of pressure on myself to be out there and be the best player on the court, and when I'm not I feel bad for myself because I'm not going out there and doing the things I can do. But I don't hang my head low or make any excuses about anything that may be going on, because that's not the type of player or person I am."

He wasn't making excuses, but he also wasn't providing much in the way of an insightful explanation for a 3-for-14 shooting night on which he seemed tentative, hesitant, de-energized, confused and oh, so human.

As this game started getting away from the Cavs late in the first half and early in the third quarter, you kept waiting for the moment when James would begin to assert himself and start playing like not only the MVP, but like the man who supposedly is on a far broader mission to bring a title to this snakebitten city that hasn't won a championship in any major professional sport since 1964.

But every time James brought the ball over the midcourt line, two defenders started to converge on him and he gave it up.

When someone else brought the ball upcourt, James was too often sitting idle in the corner, or fighting to get a clear line of sight between himself and the ball without having Paul Pierce block the view.

James didn't make a single shot in the first half, didn't get his first field goal until the third quarter was nearly halfway done, and had almost zero impact in the area in which the Cavs failed most as a team -- on the defensive end.

When he went to the line early in the fourth quarter with the home team having turned a six-point halftime deficit into a 22-point hole it wasn't going to climb out of, there was no mistaking whom the boos were being directed at as James missed the first of two free throws.

"It's not a big thing," James said. "We played awful, and they've got every right to boo us if they want to. No disrespect to the fans. They've seen us at our highest level and our lowest level. If they felt it was right to boo, so be it."

Only about 4,000 witnesses remained in their seats by the time the final horn sounded, James having spent the final 3:58 on the bench chewing his fingernails.

When it was over, before he even made it from the bench to the door of the locker room, James was stripping off his white home Cavaliers jersey -- a jersey, it must now be said, he may never wear again.

The time was 10:53 p.m. ET, and the only person who preceded James through the exit tunnel was stone-faced Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, resplendent in a nifty blue suit that also betrayed his mood.

Like LeBron, he was silent in the few seconds before he disappeared from view. The big difference was that Gilbert went one way and LeBron went another, a visual we may come back to after July 1, when the Summer of LeBron officially begins. For now, we are left with what has turned into a very stormy spring, with the NBA's No. 1 team and No. 1 superstar on the verge of having their season end Thursday night in Boston if the Celtics can finish this thing in six.

Defensively, they looked every bit as dominant as the Celtics team that won the championship two Junes ago.

Mentally, they have done a complete 180-degree turn after their own debacle of a home loss in Game 3.

Offensively, they're just plain better.

And when James is off his game the way he was on this particular Tuesday, the Cavs simply can't compete with Boston. So either James brings it in a big way Thursday, or we can bring on the educated guesses as to where he'll play next. And at this point, you'd have to rank Cleveland as the third choice on the morning line behind New York and Miami, maybe even fourth behind Chicago.

"Of course their defense had a lot to do with it, they were aggressive, but I missed a lot of shots I usually make," James said. "You don't see this out of me a lot, so when it happens it's a surprise. But they didn't guard me any differently."

Aside from the booing, what struck you as the end of the night unfolded in all its anti-glory were the other things you were hearing, statements of finality from fans and employees alike.

At the employees' exit, security guards and concession stand workers joked that now it was time to start cheering for Kobe, and how hopefully the weather (cold and rainy) would turn better by the weekend, what with Sunday (the day of Game 7 of this series or Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals) shaping up as an unexpected off day.

James kept to himself in the locker room, momentarily popping out of the back room to drop his iPad on the empty chair in front of the spare locker next to his own, a "How ya doing?" being returned with an unexpected "Great."

Great?

On this night, James was as far from great as he has been at any major moment of his career. The odd thing was, he didn't seem overly distressed or disturbed by the predicament he and his team now find themselves in.

It was all kind of just too weird.

But then again, who ever could predict what it's going to look like when a city's dream and a player's era come to an unlikely end?

And if that's what Tuesday night ends up being, the last image we'll remember of LeBron the Cav was the most unsightly of games, followed by his exit of his home arena for what was the final time.

ESPN Insider Chris Sheridan is a regular contributor to the Daily Dime.

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