LeBron James: Witness to...Where Did He Go?
LeBron James has been the focal point of the NBA Finals because of his status as a former NBA MVP, as the biggest commercial star in the league, and because of "The Decision." His play in the first three games was not the "me first" superstar style that makes stars in the league. LeBron was playing to win, and his focus was more on defense and rotations and getting Dwyane Wade the ball when he was hot.
The media fire was lit by Gregg Doyel of Sportsline questioning his greatness, which led many other media people to sympathize with the guy who had become the bad guy over the last year. Scottie Pippen also made headlines by stating that James may be a better player than Michael Jordan. Doyel was way off base by not focusing on the intangibles that James was exhibiting in Games 1-3. Pippen was way off base because LeBron was playing more like Pippen while Wade was taking the Jordan role.
In Game 4, when Miami had a shot to close the door on Dallas, and put the Mavericks away, they couldn't close the deal. Dirk was sick, the Mavericks made rotation changes in hopes of doing anything to get JJ Barea and Jason Terry going, and Dallas had no way to stop Wade or score on LeBron.
It was a close game, and Wade made a few big mistakes at the end of the game (missed FT and losing the ball on the last inbounds). Yet he had 32 points, six rebounds and two steals and played big for most of the game. Looking at the game, one person stands out in Game 4, and that is LeBron.
Nine rebounds and seven assists is very solid for LeBron, but everything else about his Game 4 didn't work. Terry didn't shoot great but had 17 points. LeBron had 4 turnovers. The player who Scottie Pippen said may be better than Jordan scored 8 points. Less than DeShawn Stevenson. Keep in mind Jordan's lowest point total in a playoff game was 15 points, almost twice as much.
I've tried to separate my LeBron dislike from his performance, and for Games 1-3 LeBron's play made it easy. Come Game 4, he looked like a LeBron I've seen in big games before—the NBA Finals in 2007 against Orlando in Game 6 and against Boston in Game 5. This isn't the first time he played badly in a clutch game. To say that LeBron will show up huge in Games 5 and 6 sounds easy, but I have just as much evidence that he will struggle as he will come up big. The larger the game, the tighter he gets.
Eight points is soft for a superstar of LeBron's caliber. The stats at least look like he did other things well. Looking deeper at the stats, LeBron disappeared when the going got tough. Going off the ESPN fourth quarter play-by-play, this is every play LeBron was involved with in the fourth quarter.
11:00 LeBron James defensive rebound
10:30 Jason Terry personal foul (LeBron James draws the foul)
9:33 LeBron James traveling
7:39 LeBron James bad pass
7:28 LeBron James defensive rebound
7:24 Dwayne Wade makes driving layup (LeBron James assists)
2:25 LeBron James misses 17 ft two-point shot
0:06 LeBron James personal take (Jason terry draws the foul)
That's it. Seriously.
The player we are supposed to worship and look at as potentially the best of all time in a key game of the NBA Finals turned into a ghost in the fourth quarter. I had to double check to see if he was subbed out during some of this time, but that would be in the log.
LeBron's NBA Finals Game 4 fourth quarter stats were 0 PTS, 2 REB, 1 AST, 1 Foul, 2 TO and 1 attempted shot.
Why is LeBron not loved?
The decision is part of it, but fans want to see their superstars be clutch when it matters or at least attempt to be. Dirk made a bad pass and missed a shot at the end of Game 3, but he had the ball again in Game 4 when it mattered and made a layup near the end. LeBron did nothing to try to win Game 4 for the Heat. He may have done something defensively to prevent Dallas from winning, but we don't love superstars for positioning and guarding. He didn't try to go to the basket, draw fouls, anything offensive.
Maybe Gregg Doyel was way off base, or maybe he was just two days early.
