* One more stat to feed the fire: LeBron James played 40 minutes tonight, facing elimination, and was a game-worst -24 in the plus/minus.
That means Miami out-scored Dallas by 14 in the 8 minutes James was out. Think about that one for a while. Whew.
The Heat lost, I think you might have heard. Dallas won, absolutely deserved to win.
And James was nowhere to be found, once again, when the game was on the line.
He didn’t want the ball–he was a Mickael Pietrus clone when the ball came to him, passing it away immediately and panickedly, presumably fretting that something bad would surely happen if he kept it more than a split-second.
Maybe LeBron was right about that bad stuff. (After all, when he was forced to do stuff last night, he bumbled into 6 turnovers. Very Pietrus.)
Yes, the Dallas defense played LBJ wonderfully, all credit to Shawn Marion, Jason Kidd, DeShawn Stevenson, coach Rick Carlisle and assistant Dwane Casey, who was bypassed by the Warriors in favor of Mark Jackson.
–By the way, if I’m Casey, I’m officially furious at Joe Lacob for swooning over Mark Jackson’s personality (and the teaming with Michael Malone) that Lacob couldn’t wait six days to interview me for the Warriors job.
But LeBron is a superstar in his absolute prime, someone who has averaged 27.7 points in his career, led the league in scoring once, and averages more than 28 per in the postseason in his career.
He. Did. Not. Want. The. Ball.
From the start of the second half in Game 4 all the way through the end of this seres tonight, James wanted no part of shooting it, absolutely none.
Can you imagine Michael Jordan ever frantically running away from the ball at the end of a finals game? Or ever? Can you imagine Kobe Bryant doing it?
Isiah Thomas? Larry Bird? Julius Erving? Dirk Nowitzki?
Stephen Jackson? Monta Ellis?
Noooo chance. Again, James has a point that he played fairly well on defense in the series (except in a handful of passive moments) and generally tried to get his teammates involved with passing.
But that’s not what the Heat needed from him in the last quarters of the last three games of this season.
LeBron might’ve failed if he shot it more or pressed the issue or just looked more like he had some idea how to close a game, instead of looking like some scared rookie, dazed by the moment, desperate for his buddy Dwyane Wade to save the day and then save it again and then save it again.
The Heat might’ve lost either way. But the Heat sure as hell wasn’t going to win with LeBron in a shell, his hand on the lid, holding it down tight, so that nobody could scare him any more.
LeBron played like one of his former Cleveland teammates, really. He played like a member of the supporting cast who knows he’s not good enough to take over.
This timid performance will go on his NBA tombstone, unless James wins multiple titles in the next few years, and it might be there even if he wins those multiple titles.
And I’d assume their fairly pleased in Cleveland right about now.
* Yes, I picked Miami in 5. I was wrong. I went with the huge statistical trend for the Heat, which swept Dallas in the three key stats–regular-season point-differential, FG%-differential and rebounding %.
None of the five teams over the last 10 years that had an edge in all three categories went on to lose the the finals.
Now Miami just has. I was wrong. Let me hear it. (You already are.)
* Again, all credit to Dallas. To Nowitzki, the MVP, who didn’t shoot well tonight but even as he was clanking, you knew he’d hit the ones in the fourth quarter that would punch a hole in Miamai.
To Jason Kidd, who played a great, heady, old-man series, even if he was not spectacular on offense.
To Tyson Chandler, who, to me, changed the Mavericks this year–a real rumbling center, got them extra possessions, protected the rim, made them tough inside.
To Shawn Marion, who is one of the most under-rated players of this era–Dallas could’ve never gotten away with playing some of the combinations they did tonight and throughout the series if they didn’t have a monster wing defender alongside, swinging over to cover up the gaps.
That’s Marion. Any wonder that Phoenix became a dramatically easier team to play once Marion was traded away? When you play with one-way dominant offense players, you need versatile defenders in there with them.
Again, that’s Marion, under the radar. (Maybe that’s LeBron’s preferred role now.)
To Terry, who had just as much to prove as Nowitzki from the Mavericks’ playoff losses in 2006 and 2007.
To Carlisle, who gave this team some fire and drew up some wonderful offensive sets.
To owner Mark Cuban, who literally paid his dues (and fines) for this one and makes less passionate owners in all other sports look like spineless, shifty figures that so many of them are.
* It’s not over for Miami, of course. The Heat superstars are still in their primes and they will win a lot of games.. Maybe a title or two.
It took Nowitzki and Terry five years to get the title after screwing it up in 2006 (against Miami, of course) ; somehow, I don’t think LeBron and Wade (who won that ‘06 title) are going to have an enjoyable 5 years if it takes them that long to get another chance.
I thought they’d win this one. But I’ve also doubted that the Heat could go on dynasty run because it lacks two huge elements–a controlling point guard and a power, high-percentage center.
You can win a title without one or both, but I’m pretty sure you can’t many of them.
Hey, guess what: Dallas had those two things this year.
And Dallas had two future Hall of Famers plus three or four very, very good players around them, and the Mavs somehow blended that into a true ensemble.
Miami had two superstars, one very good player (Chris Bosh) and zero ensemble. And one of the superstars played like a guy who would rather be shooting a commercial than have the game in his hands.
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