No one should be upset with LeBron James for speaking the truth.

He is indeed the best player of his generation, one of the best of all time and certainly the best player on the planet today.

Hearing the words come out of his mouth after the Cleveland Cavaliers' bitter Game 5 loss to the Golden State Warriors in these Finals should not have come as a shock. That confidence in himself and what he brings to the party is what has fueled the Cavaliers rise from a 19-20 team midway through the season to the clear-cut favorite and force they became throughout the course of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

But he's locked in a game of survival now, the Cavaliers down 3-2 heading into tonight's Game 6 showdown at Quicken Loans Arena (9 ET, ABC) needed yet another superhuman performance from LeBron to keep this series and their title hopes alive.

And in a battle between the best player on the planet and a Warriors crew that has been the best team on the planet this season, there is strength in the numbers that the Warriors can wield for however long it takes.

"I don't know," LeBron said. "I don't put a ceiling on what I can do. I don't know ... I've got to be better. I know I'm shouldering a lot of the burden, but it is what it is."

The Warriors are more than willing to trade another 48 minutes of LeBron against the deepest and most balanced roster in the league, led, of course, by KIA MVP Stephen Curry, who seems to have found his groove after a 37-point effort (17 in the fourth quarter) to secure that Game 5 win Sunday in Oakland.

LeBron has been nothing short of brilliant. He's scored in whatever way -- inside and out, in transition and in the half court -- that was needed to keep the Cavaliers close. The pace means little to a player who has no individual equal.

And yet James faces the prospect of both coming up short for the fourth time in his sixth Finals try and of missing the mark on his own immense expectations.

"It's The Finals," he said. "It's something you dream of when you're a kid. For me, I put the work in. I put the work in every single day, either when you guys are there or when you are not there. I give everything to my teammates. When you are true to the game, it doesn't matter if it's a regular season game or a Finals game, you just go out there and trust what you put into the game and you live with the results."

For his part, LeBron is keenly aware of the limitations of the group he's playing with ... and he refuses to make any excuses for their shortcomings.

He insists Cleveland has enough to win Game 6, stretch this series to a winner-take-all Game 7 Friday night in Oakland, where he believes the Cavaliers can win again (as they did in Game 2).

"We're going home with a Game 6 and we've got enough to win it," he said. "We protect home, we come [back] here. We'll worry about Tuesday first. But we protect home like we're capable of doing, we force a Game 7."

It's hard to fathom LeBron being able to do much more than he already has without the All-Star assistance of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. In Game 5, he either scored or assisted on 26 of the Cavaliers' 32 field goals. No other player in the last 45 years has had a hand in a higher percentage of his team's field goals in a Finals game.

LeBron is one of just two players to reach 70 percent during that time. He participated in 75.9 percent in Game 2 and Magic Johnson participated in 70.6 during Game 6 of the 1988 Finals for the Los Angeles Lakers.

That's one reason why the comparisons between LeBron and Michael Jordan don't always jive with their games. It would be foolish to argue that Jordan, Magic or anyone else on your NBA Mount Rushmore has had to tote a heavier load than LeBron has this series.

And few players can impact the game in more ways, on both ends of the floor.

LeBron played all five positions during Game 5's small-ball extravaganza -- there were stretches where he was the Cavaliers' tallest player on the floor and he facilitated the offense while also serving as the low-post presence on the same possession -- and nearly pulled off the upset.

"He's phenomenal," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "He does everything."

But a lack of energy that has plagued LeBron and the Cavaliers in the fourth quarters in every game this series swallowed them up again. LeBron was gassed in the final minutes of Game 5, trading his best for the best Curry, Andre Iguodala, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Leandro Barbosa had to offer up for the Warriors.

"Strength in Numbers" is the slogan splashed across the gold t-shirts spotted all around the Bay Area.

It's not just a mantra for these Warriors, it's the way they have crushed the competition all season. It's the method they used to win a franchise-record 67 games during the regular season, and the same method they used to scrap back from a 2-1 Finals deficit to even things up (Game 4) and seize control (Game 5) of the series.

It's the same style they'll have to use to finish this series, be it tonight or in a Game 7 against the best player on the planet.

LeBron believes in the power of his game and what he can do, but does he believe in his supporting cast and what they can do to assist him?

Can he count on J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert to answer the call? Can he lean on Matthew Dellavedova, who played Robin to LeBron's Batman for the first three games of this series only to fade into the background in Games 4 and 5, to dial up another heroic effort?

And what about Cavaliers coach David Blatt, whose decision-making has come into question again after he tried to beat the Warriors at small ball knowing that he lacked the requisite personnel to do so?

So many questions and so little time for answers from the best player on the planet, who could soon be at the mercy of the best team on the planet.

Sekou Smith is a staff writer for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter.

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