The Block Heard 'Round the World: Twitter Reacts to LeBron's Swat on Splitter
LeBron James and the Miami Heat turned Game 2 into a laugher Sunday night, thanks in part to a sequence from James that blew the doors off the front of AmericanAirlines Arena.
With the Heat taking a close game and turning it into a blowout late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, LeBron finally woke up from the nap that he seemed to be taking for the first 32 minutes of the game.
The Heat found themselves up by 19 points three-and-a-half minutes into the final period, but LeBron saw the opportunity to put an exclamation point on the entire game with a few amazing plays.
It all started off as he sized up Tiago Splitter on the big man's drive to the basket. As LeBron lurked far underneath the hoop, nearly out of bounds, Splitter took off and cocked back for an explosive dunk. James timed it and stopped him at the top of his attempt.
Everybody watching at home let out a collective grunt of exhilaration as the people in Miami went completely bonkers. Twitter followed suit.
"Roy Hibbert is going to hang a picture of that LeBron James block in his house.
— Roy Burton (@TheBSLine) June 10, 2013"
"BREAKING: Tiago Splitter retires during timeout. No reversin' from that career hearse'n! #LeBlock
— (Not) Walt Frazier (@NotWaltFrazier) June 10, 2013"
"FDM SYSTEMS.... BACK ONLINE.... LOADING FIRMWARE 2.0.... SPLITTER ACQUIRED. TERMINATE. ACTIVATE FDM.EXE. INITIATE.
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) June 10, 2013"
"From the backboard cam, LeBron's hand totally photobombed Tiago's dunk.
— Tom Ziller (@teamziller) June 10, 2013"
"LeBron's stat line should just say "had an incredible block". Would suffice
— Umair Khan (@UKhanNBA) June 10, 2013"
""It takes great courage to go up and make one of those plays." -- Erik Spoelstra on LeBron James' block
— Ben Golliver (@blazersedge) June 10, 2013"
"The behind the backboard shot is my favorite. The HAND
— SBNation NBA (@SBNationNBA) June 10, 2013"
"LeBron vs. Hibbs twitter.com/juliephayer/st…
— Julie Phayer (@juliephayer) June 10, 2013"
"Never seen a block like the one LeBron had tonight. Nor did I know it was possible to do that to another professional basketball player.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) June 10, 2013"
From there, LeBron couldn't do anything but ham it up for a few seconds. When you block a dunk like that, you deserve a bit of glory to yourself.
He followed up with a steal and a reverse dunk, which was great, but it really couldn't match up with the block. In all, the sequence was one of the best you'll ever see from a player, even if it was in borderline garbage time.
"That sequence. Dear lord.
— Noam Schiller (@noamschiller) June 10, 2013"
"And with that block-dime-dunk sequence, the folks cutting highlights for SportsCenter just got their lead.
— Pat Forde (@YahooForde) June 10, 2013"
"What a ridiculous four possession sequence.
— Jared Dubin (@JADubin5) June 10, 2013"
His stat line wasn't the amazing slew of numbers that we're used to, but something tells me he doesn't much care about that.
