With a 97-87 game-five victory, the Miami Heat have advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals… and LeBron James has advanced past the Boston Celtics. It took him eight seasons, one nationally televised Decision, and three tries to get it done, but finally, he did it… and when it suddenly hit home, he had to simply kneel down on the floor as his entire NBA career flashed in front of his eyes.
“Everything went through my mind at that point,” James said. “Finally getting over this hump against this team. Everything I went through this summer, with ‘The Decision’ and deciding to come down here to be a part of this team … because I knew how important team is to this sport … and all the backlash I got from it. I’d be up here for two hours if I tell you exactly everything that went through my head. Very emotional at that point, you know, and happy we got through it as a team.”
Hell, he was so emotional that he even appologized for “The Decision”: “I apologize for the way it happened. But I knew that this opportunity was once in a lifetime.”
I’ll accept that. The dude was a free agent, and he’s right, the opportunity to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh doesn’t pop up every day. I’ve always wished that LeBron had more drive to be the greatest player of all-time, but I’ve always felt like he’d rather be a member of the greatest team of all-time. This was his realistic chance to do so, and it was his right to take it. “The Decison” was lame as f@ck, but he knows that, and he’s saying he’s sorry. I think we should all accept his apology and keep it moving.
I think my favorite aspect of this game was just how very real LeBron’s moment was. Sometimes you forget the dude is a human being just like the rest of us, and it’s nice to be reminded of that fact every once in a while. No one is completely immune to the effects of pressure and critisism, not even one of the NBA’s greatest players, so it’s extremely easy to understand why it was so emotional for him. The Boston Celtics are the reason why LeBron James plays for the Miami Heat right now (“They’re the reason why all three of us came together, is because of what they did, that blueprint they had in ’08 when they all came together.” -LBJ) Boston as also been responsible for the majority of the bumps in his road. LeBron knew that in order to win an NBA championship, he would have to beat these guys, who have already proven their ability to accomplish his goal… and he didn’t feel that he could get it done in Cleveland. Some people (including myself) think he had already come to that conclusion before last year’s second round loss even wrapped up, causing him a great deal of grief from fans and the media. So, finally advancing past the Boston Celtics, even on a new team with a lot of help, had to feel incredible for LeBron. Aside from winning a championship, it’s probably the biggest thing he could’ve accomplished this season. The fact that he scored the final 10 points of the game, which was tied with about two minutes to go, must’ve made the feeling even more unbelievable…
For all the sh!t that he takes about his supposed tendency to crumble under pressure, that’s some pretty cold-blooded stuff. If you’ve ever played basketball before, you know LeBron was hearing all the critical voices in his head, and seeing flashbacks of his past failures against the Cs as he decided to take over and make damn sure there would not be another failure this season. I don’t care how you feel about LeBron; you have to appreciate the way he put his team on his back–which was already carrying an insane amount of pressure from a wide variety of sources–and carried them to victory. That was pretty f@cking awesome, and while I will never like LeBron as much as I did when he played for the Cavs, he has moved back up a few notches on my totem poll… and I’m happy for him.
Not only did LeBron score the game’s final 10 points, he had 23 more in the first 45 minutes. He did so on just 20 shots, all the while keeping Paul Pierce in check (12 points). Dwyane Wade carried Miami early with 11 first-quarter points… he finished with a game-high 34 on just 19 shots. Chris Bosh had another double-double with 14/11, and no one else really did much of anything statistically. As for the Celtics, well… Ray Allen went 5-10 from three, and Delonte West/Jeff Green contributed 19 points off the bench… but that was about it. Kevin Garnett was decent with 15/11 on 6-13, but they really needed a huge game from him. He and Chris Bosh pretty much cancelled each other out, and with Wade and James going ham, that wasn’t gonna get the job done. So……
Danny Ainge will take the brunt of the heat for ^that, but I don’t think he should. I maintain my position on Kendrick Perkins–he isn’t very good. Yes, the chemistry got f@cked, but that’s on Doc and the players as far as I’m concerned. Danny made a talent upgrade, and it was their job to make it work. They didn’t. KG and Rondo were invisible in this series. The bench was nonexistent. That isn’t Danny Ainge’s fault… the players just failed to get it done. Admitted Paul Pierce: “Right now, I am really upset. I wish I could have played better tonight. Unfortunately we came up on the short end of the stick. I tip my hat off to Miami. They really played great basketball.”
I had a funny feeling that the loser of OKC/MEM game four may lay an egg in game five, and the Grizzlies did just that (99-72, OKC). I figure that Memphis knew they were essentially in the WCF had they just been able to pull that game out, and they were so close… yet so far. That right there is a crushing blow to a team’s morale… to know you had the series-changing game within reach; to know you could’ve put the Thunder in a hole that only eight teams have ever climbed out of, but allowed it to slip. It’s tough to bounce back from that. Neither team deserved to lose game four, but some one had to, and it was going to be a crushing blow to whoever did… that’s why I basically declared the series over immediately afterwards.
I honestly don’t have time to give you a summary of the game; I’m running a tad late today, so here are the highlights…
As you can see, Memphis hung around early, but fell apart late in the second quarter (only able to score two buckets in the final 4:59). Zach Randolph and Mark Gasol only took 18 combined shots, an uncharictaristically low number. They didn’t rebound the ball well either, or make their freethrows (sub-50 percent).
The best thing that happened for the Thunder? Russell Westbrook only launched 10 shots. They got contributions from everybody in this game, rather than a bunch of forced offense from a single gunner. Kevin Durant led the way with 19, Daequan Cook had 18, Westbrook had 11, Nazr Mohammed had 10, and Serge Ibaka, James Harden, and Nick Collison all had nine. No one took more than 14 shots, and nine people took at least five. Obviously this is in part due to the fact that it was a blowout, but they were sharing the ball throughout with their 22 team assists. Guys like Collison, Harden, and Cook didn’t score all of their points in garbage time, they contributed when it mattered.
