If LeBron Wasn't Deferring in the 4th Quarter, Would Miami Have Blown Two Big Leads?
By Jason McIntyre
It seems a lot of people disagreed with the idea that LeBron’s come up small in the fourth quarter of game three in the NBA Finals. Yes, he had the game-winning assist. Yes, he took (and missed) a lot of ill-advised shots in the 4th quarter of game two during Miami’s epic choke. Here’s a staggering stat: LeBron has made three baskets in the fourth quarter in the first three games of the Finals (3-for-11, nine points). Fortunately, Miami has a 2-1 series lead, or this would actually be an issue.
I wouldn’t say anyone being critical of LeBron in the 4th quarter is “going after” him. That’s tough to do when he’s averaging 20-7-6 in the Finals. I think it’s certainly a fair topic for discussion, though. JA Adande probably had the best take on this issue:
"Here’s the paradox of LeBron: He regularly makes the sensible play when it comes to passing, but he doesn’t always make the sensible play when it comes to going to the hoop. After making only two trips to the free throw line in Game 2, he vowed to attack the basket more in Game 3 and did exactly that in the first half. Five of his six shots in the first two quarters came from inside the paint, including a memorable initiation to the Finals for Ian Mahinmi. LeBron James going to the hoop is one of the most unstoppable plays in basketball, and yet we rarely see it, and every time he plays a stretch like he did in the first half Sunday, it makes you wonder why. We also saw the equivalent of two lunar eclipses in the same week: James posted up to start the first and third quarters; both resulted in a double-team and a pass to an open teammate for a made jump shot. Again, why don’t we see more of it?"
I think that last line is they key: We’ve seen what LeBron is capable of (nobody disputes he is the best player in the league for a few years running), especially in the last two rounds against Boston and Chicago. But since he’s so incredible, why doesn’t it happen all the time? One argument is that he doesn’t want to be forced to take over all the time, and that’s why he came to Miami, so he could have another guy (Wade) do it on occasion. That, of course, leads to the inevitable, “He’ll never be Michael Jordan!*” which is kind of silly, but also fun, because physically, the NBA has never seen anyone with the power/speed combo of LeBron (Magic, my favorite player of all-time, never made the chasedown block an art form; Shaq was unique to his position), and some people (me included) think if LeBron wanted to, he could wind up a better player than Jordan.
But would Michael Jordan have settled for jumpers against Shawn Marion? It seemed like LeBron made all the important jumpers in the 4th quarter of the Chicago series … that’s not the case (so far) in the Finals. Why?
Jason Whitlock thinks the Jordan direction is the wrong way to. He thinks LeBron is going the Bill Russell route (I especially liked the 23-to-6 jersey change note, as if LeBron was going from Jordan in Cleveland to Russell in Miami):
"For large stretches of this NBA Finals, Dwyane Wade is being guarded by Jason Kidd, Jason Terry or J.J. Barea. D-Wade has a considerable matchup advantage. The intelligent play for James is to facilitate and defer to Wade. The Heat lost Game 2 partially because in the final minutes they failed to exploit Wade’s advantage. Common sense dictates James’ fourth-quarter behavior. His submission should be celebrated and trumpeted. His embrace of defense and playmaking for others speak to a high IQ, an understanding of his strengths and limitations. His bond with Wade should be used as a positive symbol for athletes and young people. The best leaders are willing to be led."
The first paragraph is dead on, but the second one has a hole: the Heat blew a massive lead in the 4th quarter of game two (loss), and blew a big lead in game three (win). I think this is why Wade yelled at LeBron in the 4th quarter. A superstar deferring in the 1st half is fine. The 4th quarter needs to be takeover time for LeBron (obviously I’m not talking about the very last play of game three). Even looking back to the Chicago series, if LeBron doesn’t take over offensively in two of those games …
[Aside: LeBron’s 4th quarter defense. Yes, he’s a phenomenal defensive player. Yes, he shut down Derrick Rose in the last series on multiple occasions when it counted. But let’s pump the brakes a bit on LeBron’s 4th quarter defense in the Finals. He’s stopping Jason Terry. He should. Terry is 33. If Caron Butler were around, Terry would be the 3rd offensive option. If LeBron wasn’t stopping Jet, it’d be a problem. If Derrick Rose can’t score on LeBron, how the hell is Jason Terry going to? Try defending Dirk in the fourth quarter, LeBron, that’ll impress people. And yes, I know Haslem is doing a good job on Dirk, and yes, I can already hear you: “see, LeBron can’t win! It’s never good enough!”]
Another decent take on the LeBron issue came from Ken Berg at CBS, who took a shot at the stat guys in the process:
"If the LeBron apologists and see-no-evil statistical devotees would stop breaking down screen grabs and Synergy clips long enough, they’d tip their hat to Doyel, too. They’d credit him for being one of the only media members with the cojones to confront LeBron publicly — even though he was wrong. Much easier to limit that dialogue to the fingertips and the laptop, which is the way of the world now."
I just found that funny. That’s all.
* We can revisit this discussion when Wade wins the MVP.