LeBron Rises to the Occasion
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.
"Best Athlete" Bracket Semis Announced
It’s time for the unveiling of the Sports Action “Best Athlete” Bracket Semi-Finals. For those of you who don’t know yet Jonnie Motomochi and myself are on a quest to find the best athlete in professional sports today. On our show, Sports Action on 88.7 KBVR, this past week Jonnie and myself debated about who should be considered the best athlete. We got nowhere so we decided to make a bracket with the top-16 athletes in professional sports today and break it down until there was only one athlete left standing. We have just finished the quarter-finals and here is how the bracket now breaks down for the semis.
LeBron James of the NBA‘s Miami Heat will face Calvin “Megatron” Johnson of the NFL‘s Detroit Lions in the finals of the Deion Sanders Bracket. James, the number one overall seed in the bracket, was able to beat out the UFC‘s Jon “Bones” Jones while Megatron, the number two seed in this half of the bracket, beat out the talented Carl Crawford.
In the Bo Jackson Bracket the number one seed, Blake Griffin of the NBA, will square off with Russell Westbrook of the NBA. Westbrook was the number two seed in this bracket and dispatched Cam Newton in the closest vote that the Bo Jackson Bracket has seen yet. Griffin was able to advance by beating out fellow NBAer Dwight Howard.
Again, the Finals of the bracket will be released at the beginning of our show, Sports Action, on Sunday when we first come on air at 8pm. Be sure to tune in to 88.7 KBVR or stream live at kbvr.com/listen. We will then announce the best athlete in professional sports today in the last half hour of the show.
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