LeBron James Thriving Without Other Stars, and We Should No Longer Be Surprised
CLEVELAND — Everyone in Quicken Loans Arena witnessed LeBron James lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 96-91 Game 3 victory Tuesday, but not everyone could fully understand what they were seeing. Not like Dwyane Wade could as the Miami Heat—for now—star sat on a riser in the corner, in his temporary role as ESPN/ABC analyst, watching his close friend, former teammate and fellow champion lift a new group of considerably lesser talents to heights none imagined them reaching.
"There's one side of me that knows he doesn't want to shoot as much as he is," Wade shared with Bleacher Report, immediately after he and James shared some stories, statistics and laughs during a surreal six-minute TV interview. "But he loves to control and set everyone's play the way he is. So, in a sense, it's what he's comfortable with. You know, it's what he's done. Until he came to Miami, it's what he's always done. This is his comfort zone. I mean, what he's doing is incredible, it's phenomenal. But he's in his comfort zone. You could see at times in Miami where he was uncomfortable. But now he's back."
He's back in the lead in the NBA Finals for the first time since closing out San Antonio in 2013—the first Finals lead in franchise history—and if you're taken aback by that, considering the tattered state of his supporting cast, you probably shouldn't be.
Wade certainly isn't, not after what he's seen while with, or against, James.
It also doesn't surprise those who knew James when, all the way back at St. Vincent-St. Mary, he battled national prep powers with players of not quite the same caliber; when Dru Joyce III was his Matthew Dellavedova and Romeo Travis was his Tristan Thompson; when he began to grasp how he could use his special gifts to empower others, his presence and passion giving them belief. Nor does it surprise former NBA player and current Cavaliers radio analyst Jim Chones, whose son's team came up short against James back in those prep days when James was learning to lead, set a tone and make the most of everyone.
"And I'm gonna tell you right now, at the end of this series, if we're fortunate enough to win it, he's got to be maybe the greatest player to play our game," Chones said prior to Tuesday's game. "I don't care what anybody says. I love Michael Jordan. But Jordan can't do this. Jordan can't control the game like Oscar. Oscar Robertson is the last player I remember that could control the tempo and the pace of the game. This is the next guy. He controls it. This is his style of play. He's been playing this since junior high school."
Nor does it surprise those who saw him in the year 2007, at age 22, take a Cavaliers team with hardly a suitable fourth option, let alone a second or third, to the NBA Finals, only to be swept by San Antonio.
"I'm so outside of the box right now," James said, already an hour into Wednesday, once he finally pulled himself away from Wade and addressed the regular media. "I went seven straight seasons with improving my efficiency. Seven straight into this season. ... But this is a different challenge. This is a totally different challenge. I've never played where two All-Stars were out. So it's a different challenge for myself, and it's outside the box, but it's not too far. It's not far for me to grab."
No, but you wouldn't be grabbing at straws to say that, in reality, he has played without two All-Stars more than he's played with them, whether in his first Cleveland stint of seven seasons, when his top teammate may have been Mo Williams, or when Wade was out for Miami. And so you shouldn't be surprised that he's excelling without any, now that Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving are injured, unless you believed or spread the lazy narrative that he needed to pair with superstars to succeed.
If you studied his stay in Miami, you'd realize that some of his better games came when Wade was absent, like when he scored a career-high 61 last season against Charlotte. You'd also recall that he often appeared most at ease when both Wade and Chris Bosh were sitting, and when he was accompanied not by proven scorers, but by spacers and scrappers.
This was never more evident than during the 2012-13 season, the one that featured a 27-game winning streak that was propelled by Erik Spoelstra settling on a rotation. That rotation included plenty of minutes for James to play with four role players in Chris Andersen (screener, rebounder, finisher), Shane Battier (dirty worker, spacer), Ray Allen (elite spacer) and Norris Cole (ball hawk, ball-handler). During that stretch, that lineup dominated on both ends, but especially defensively, collectively shooting 50 percent while recording a plus-12.0 per 100 possessions.
No one could have projected that without Kevin Love, and now Kyrie Irving, he'd raise his shot totals to quite this degree—his 107 in three NBA Finals games is 17 more than he took in the six-game 2011 Finals against Dallas. But we shouldn't be stunned that he's raised his level in the absence of prominent others, nor that he's raised the level of those remaining with him on the floor.
In a sense, this is easier for him. It's clearer. It's cleaner. James understands everyone's strengths and, more importantly, their limitations, and so does everyone who is out there with him—even J.R. Smith, even if it may not always seem so.
James doesn't need to worry about getting a premier frontcourt player (whether Love or Bosh) touches early to ensure that he remains engaged. He isn't forced to take turns with an electric guard like Irving or Wade, trying not to step on the other scorer's toes. As he did with Cole, Allen, Battier and Andersen, he is often out there with a scrappy ball hawk (Dellavedova), a spacer (Smith or James Jones, or maybe even Mike Miller), a defender to take tough assignments (Iman Shumpert) and an energetic, selfless big (Thompson). He is aligned now entirely with players without agendas, who are somewhat dependent and entirely devoted to him. As he said after Shumpert, Smith and Timofey Mozgov were acquired for next to nothing, "They have no sense of entitlement."
Wade, Bosh, Love and Irving were entitled to larger egos when they teamed up with James, because they had already accomplished so much individually. Consequently, they were entitled to greater shot totals, too.
Now, there are no such worries about placating others.
James can just play.
"Yeah, yeah, and it was his job (in Miami) to get us those touches," Wade said, referring to himself and Bosh. "You know what I mean? Now, he can shoot anytime he wants."
Wade laughed.
"You know, he couldn't do that in Miami," Wade said.
He couldn't do it as much with Irving and Love playing, either.
Now he can. Now he is, with a Finals record 123 points through three games, the first to score at least 40 twice in the NBA Finals since Wade did so in Games 3 and 5 of the 2006 NBA Finals—the one he seized without James by his side.
Now, James is halfway to his own title, by shooting more than he ever has.
"Yeah, and he's going to have to keep doing it," Wade told Bleacher Report. "And he knows it.
"But he's not shooting bad shots. You can question that Golden State is shooting bad shots. LeBron is not shooting bad shots. He's shooting his shots. Every now and again he shoots threes, you know, and he might let them off the hook. But he can't drive every play. But he's shooting the shots that he wants to shoot. ... It's not like he is ball-hogging. ... If he wasn't shooting that much, you'd be like, what is he doing?"
What he's doing is what he's always done, when he's been, by far, the best player on his side, when he's needed to help others be better than anyone believed, when he's found ways to make them count, long after they've been counted out.
What he's doing is winning.
We should no longer be surprised.
Ethan Skolnick covers the NBA for Bleacher Report and is a co-host of NBA Sunday Tip, 9-11 a.m. ET on SiriusXM Bleacher Report Radio. Follow him on Twitter, @EthanJSkolnick.
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