For all the slack that LeBron James takes for not being “clutch” he sure does have a nag for showing up for the biggest games in the playoffs.
With the Heat down 3-2, facing elimination and playing in Boston James put up 45 points on 19 of 26 shooting, 15 rebounds and 5 assists when his team needed him most.
The array of shots that James hit all night were ridiculous! Turnaround jumpers, floaters in the lane, three pointers over defenders, and fast break lay-in’s, not to mention the put back dunk that basically broke the Celtics’ back’s (see below).
This isn’t the first time that LeBron has done something like this in the postseason. In 2009 against Orlando LeBron scored 49 points, grabbed 6 boards, and dished out 8 assists in a Game 1 loss. In 2007 against Detroit he dropped 48 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists on the Pistons in a 109-107 win in double overtime. He scored 29 of his 48 points in the fourth quarter and overtimes. He also scored 47 points, and added 12 rebounds and 8 assists in a 2009 playoff game against the Atlanta Hawks to move the Cavaliers to a 3-0 lead in the series. Even earlier in these playoffs James scored 40 points with 18 rebounds in Game 4 against Indiana with the Heat down 2-1 in the series.
The point here is that for all the criticism James takes for this and that, he is the most dominating player in the NBA and when he is called upon to carry his team he, more often than not, rises to the occasion.
June 8, 2012 | Categories: Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, LeBron James, Miami, NBA, Orlando | Leave a comment
Almost mid-way through the NBA Playoffs me and Jonnie Motomochi have gone back and forth on our picks and who we feel is playing the best. This week on the show I made my final picks for the rest of the playoffs. Here they are:
Conference Semis
Spurs already advanced
Lakers/Thunder- Thunder in 5 (ends tonight)
Celtics/Sixers- Sixers in 6 (hasn’t changed)
Heat/Pacers- Heat in 7 (had them in a sweep, didn’t happen that way I guess)
Conference Finals
Thunder/Spurs-Thunder in 7 (best series of the playoffs thus far)
Heat/Sixers- Heat in 5 (Philly doesn’t have the height of Indiana, but the Sixers will make the games close)
NBA Finals
Heat/Thunder-Heat in 6 (Bosh will be back and finally at full strength, LeBron finally wins title)
The individual match ups in the NBA Finals will make it one for the ages. LeBron and Durant will battle, Westbrook and Wade will provide highlight reel plays, Bosh and Ibaka will bang down low and hit their outside jumpers. Spoelstra and Brooks are two of the best young coaches in the NBA right now. This will be the best NBA Finals since the 1998 Bulls/Jazz Finals.
May 21, 2012 | Categories: Boston, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, Indiana, Jonnie Motomochi, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Los Angeles, Miami, NBA, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Russell Westbrook, San Antonio, Serge Ibaka | Leave a comment
Blowouts, Bull injured, big comebacks, and bumping into referees. The NBA Playoffs have officially started ladies and gentlemen and through the first two days there has been more to talk about than there was the entire season.
Lets start in Miami where, on Saturday night,
Carmelo Anthony,
Tyson Chandler, and
Amare Stoudemire took their talents to South Beach to do battle with the
Heat. This game was over from the tip as the Heat ran away with 33-point, 100-67, victory. Both teams were two of the most talked about teams all year in the NBA thanks to expectations, Lin-sanity, losing streaks, and in house drama. It seems as though the Heat have turned it up another notch to start the playoffs, but were they as impressive as
New York was disappointing in Game 1? Yes, as bad as New York played throughout the game Miami played ridiculous defense, anchored by
LeBron James holding Anthony to 11 points on 3-15 shooting, and was able to hit nearly 50% of their shots. I would look for this dominating trend to continue in this series and predict a sweep by the Heat.
The biggest news of the playoffs thus far has to be
Derrick Rose going down with a torn ACL in Game 1 against Philadelphia, and
Motomochi and myself talked about this heavily on our show this week. Last year’s league MVP has missed significant time all season and the Bulls have continued to win without him, but this isn’t the regular season anymore. In the playoffs it is my belief that to win a title you need a superstar on your team for those “big moments”.
Chicago no longer has that option, unless you consider Rip Hamilton or Luol Deng a superstar, in which case you obviously don’t follow basketball all that closely. In my opinion the Bulls are done. Now they will win this first round series against the weaker
76ers, but that is as far as they make it. They are going to face either
Boston or
Atlanta in the second round, both of who I believe can beat the Bulls without Rose in a seven game series. It is sad that this happened to Rose who is such a special player, but with that said the Bulls might want to start making vacation plans after the second round.
Day two of the playoffs featured the red-hot
Memphis Grizzlies and the Lob City
Clippers. Long story short the Grizzlies entire team decided to do it’s best impression of LeBron. They dominated the Clippers in every aspect of the game for the first 40 minutes and at one point had a 27 point lead. The Clippers went on to finish the game on a 28-3 run and squeak out a 99-98 win over the Griz. I have to admit that I didn’t get to see the finish of this game, turning it off with the fourth quarter about to start, but this game has to go down as one of the greatest comebacks in playoff history.
Finally the first weekend of the playoffs ended with
Rajon Rondo being ejected from the Celtics-Hawks game in the fourth quarter for apparently making contact with an official after a foul call went against Boston. The Celts went on to lose the game 83-74, but the story afterwards was Rondo who could face a league suspension as well. Losing Rondo for even just one game would hurt the Celtics, whoa re also without sharp-shooter
Ray Allen currently, tremendously.
All-in-all it was an intense start to the 2012 NBA Playoffs. After the smoke clears I think that one thing will be able to be taken away from this weekend, and that is that fact that the Heat’s chances of getting back to the NBA finals just got a huge boost with Rose going out and the Celtics, the only other team who people believe can beat the Heat in the east, could be without two of their best players for at least one more game.
April 30, 2012 | Categories: Amare Stoudemire, Atlanta, Boston, Carmelo Anthony, Chicago, Derrick Rose, LeBron James, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, NBA, New York, Philadelphia, Tyson Chandler | Leave a comment
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