For the second time this series, the Heat suffered a major 4th quarter meltdown. Game 4 wasn't as bad as Game 2, but they still squandered a 9 point lead and saw the Mavericks steal the game late. Much of the criticism for Game 4's loss has fairly or unfairly fallen on the shoulders of LeBron James. James scored only 8 points in the loss to Dallas on just 3 of 11 shooting. Sure his line looks all right: 8 points 9 rebounds 7 assists 2 steals, but that's not the LeBron James people have come to expect. He averaged 24.2 points in the first round, he averaged 28.0 points against the Celtics in the second round, and he averaged 25.8 points against the Bulls in the conference finals. Now, against the Dallas Mavericks, he's averaging just 17.3 points and has seen his production decrease every game going from 24 to 20 to 17 and now finally to 8. If you go back to the Bulls series, he's actually seen his numbers go down in 6 straight games now as he scored 35 and 28 points in the final two games of the Eastern Conference Finals.
So what's the story here? Or is there even a story here? LeBron has always been easy to critique because he's so unbelievably gifted as a basketball player. Even as a self-proclaimed hater of LeBron after "The Decision", I can acknowledge that he's an unreal talent. The way he was taking over games in the 4th quarter earlier in the postseason, he seemed destined to carry the Heat to the title. Against the Celtics, he never attempted fewer than 7 free throws in a game and in Game 5 he drained 5 3-pointers. Against the Bulls he attempted 33 free throws over the final 3 games. Against Dallas he has just 14 free throw attempts in the series. Even on defense, his numbers seem off: 9 blocked shots against the Celtics, 9 blocked shots against the Bulls, 1 blocked shot against Dallas? What's more, Dwyane Wade has used the Finals as a springboard back into the spotlight. After he struggled through the conference finals averaging 18.8 points a game (compared to 30.2 against Boston) and shooting only 40.5% with only one three-pointer in 5 games, Wade has gone for 22, 36, 29 and 32 points against Dallas (29.8 ppg) and is shooting close to 59% from the floor. He's also blocked six shots, picked up six steals, attempted 30 free throws and is shooting 35.3% from long distance. While it appears that Wade has risen to the occasion, numbers suggest James might be shrinking from it. Even Chris Bosh is having a better finals from a scoring standpoint than James is (18.3 ppg).
And then there's that guy on the other side of the court who's drawing Larry Bird comparisons and Michael Jordan comparisons as he's twice led the Mavs to victory despite a torn tendon in his finger and a 102 degree fever in Game 4. Dirk is averaging 26.5 points and 10.3 rebounds and is shooting a ridiculous 97.1% from the free throw line (he snapped a 39 consecutive makes streak in Game 4). Everyone seems to be raising their level of play in the Finals; everyone except LeBron James. Now again, to be fair, LeBron's 'bad days' are still a lot better than most people's good days. In his 'worst playoff performance ever' in Game 4, he flirted with a triple double. There's guys that would kill to be able to do that on ANY day. The problem is, LeBron is arguably the most gifted player in the world right now. He should not be the one deferring or facilitating in these big moments. I recognize that LeBron is an amazing passer. His alley-oop to Wade in Game 4, his bullet inbounds pass to Mario Chalmers that tied Game 2 in the final minute, the pass to Bosh to win Game 3... those are all great. But those aren't the plays that are drawing him criticism. It's when the offense is struggling (see the end of Game 4) and he's nowhere to be found. Teams depend on their go-to guys to get them a basket when they NEED a basket. Dirk has done that consistently in this series for Dallas. Derrick Rose did that all year for Chicago. Kevin Durant for Oklahoma City. Paul Pierce or Ray Allen for Boston. And so on and so forth. Big players step up in moments like that, and here's LeBron, the BIGGEST player and he's not producing during crunch time.
So what do we look for in Game 5? Well, I see one of two things happening. LeBron James will either, as Bill Simmons would say, go into F.U. mode and score something like 40 points in a flurry of ridiculous dunks and acrobatic layups while flirting with a triple double. No one will be able to stop him. We've seen that LeBron plenty of times in his career, just not in this series. The other possibility is that James is just worn down and he's not capable of taking over the game right now. He's logged so many minutes this year, maybe his legs are just giving out on him. He has not played fewer than 40 minutes in a game since Game 2 of the Sixers series back on April 18th. Look at his shot attempts the last 6 games: 26, 19, 16, 15, 14, 11. While I don't see him taking 9 shots in Game 5 to keep the trend going, I don't know that he's going to be able to deliver if he attempts 26 because the long season appears to be beginning to take its toll. Consider that he's played in like 100 playoff-level intensity games this year because the Heat had such a big bullseye on their back all season. That'll wear anyone down. Anyhow...
At the end of the day, if LeBron James scores 8 points with 9 rebounds and 7 assists a game and the Heat win, critics may rag on him, but he'll be a Champion. When Kobe Bryant won his 5th ring with the Lakers, he was like 6 for 24 from the floor. But he got to the free throw line for 15 attempts and added 15 rebounds. He found a way to help the team win and nobody cares that he only made 25% of his field goals. If Kobe goes 6 for 24 and the Celtics win that game, he's the goat. I don't care if LeBron gets 8 points or 48, he needs to find a way to contribute and bring home the championship, or the criticism of him will never go away. There's always going to be people that want him to be Jordan, but James just wants to be a Winner. Right now, he doesn't look like either one. He's too good a player to not be impacting the game the same way Dirk and Bosh and Wade are. If LeBron really wants a ring, he's going to have to step up his game and earn it.
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