CLEVELAND — His eyes were slits, barely open. LeBron James looked as if he could nod off at any second, drop his head on the table and take a much-deserved nap.

Carrying a team, along with the hopes of a city desperate for a championship is exhausting.

“Obviously, I’m not getting much sleep,” he said.

Or a lot of help.

Through sheer force and will, James is not only pushing the banged-up Cavaliers forward in these NBA Finals, he’s piecing together an historic personal performance. Playing the way he has to, but not how he prefers, James has his team within two wins of a title that even he didn’t think was likely when the season began.

Yet here are the Cavs, down two All-Stars, their fill-in point guard trying to re-hydrate himself after being hospitalized for dehydration and their best perimeter defender barely able to lift his left arm over his head, leading the Golden State Warriors 2-1 heading into Game 4 on Thursday night.

After scoring 40 points in Game 3, James didn’t watch TV highlights of Cleveland’s 96-91 win. Instead he popped on an episode of the Food Network show “Chopped” at 2:30 a.m. He claims to be unaware that he’s doing something special.