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by David Ramil
There’s nothing innately wrong with clichés, so long as they’re used sparingly. They sum up a prevalent opinion and, as imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they get used often enough to become part of the vernacular. So here’s one that can be applied to LeBron James’ 49-point performance over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night:
Winning cures everything.
The narrative – another term that gets used too widely and haphazardly – gets redefined or even eliminated so long as a team wins. Dysfunction in the locker room gets wiped out with enough notches in the win column, and you start to ignore the obvious because winning makes for a better, feel-good story. In 2006, Dwyane Wade and Gary Payton memorably, and embarrassingly, squabbled on the court during a Miami Heat playoff game, giving way to the idea that this talented, veteran-laden team couldn’t find a way to co-exist. Two weeks later, the two players embraced amidst the falling confetti in celebration of Miami’s first NBA title.
It works the other way, too, when a team starts losing and illuminating frustrations start to expose the cracks in the surface. This year’s Indiana Pacers are the bastion of defense and a shining symbol of team-first mentality until you hear reports, amidst a late-season collapse, about Lance Stephensen trading blows with his teammates and lost big man Roy Hibbert looking for the wrong solution to his problems by calling his teammates ‘selfish.’
And then there’s James’ offensive explosion and the all-too-real possibility that a victory over Brooklyn only temporarily hides his growing dissatisfaction with the rest of his Heat teammates.
The game started off simply enough with LeBron’s running mate, Wade, hitting his first shot attempt. Nearly two minutes into the game, those were still Miami’s only points of the contest. After four minutes of play and with the score stuck at 5-3, James made his first of three 3-pointers, a casual attempt with plenty of time left in the shot clock, just a reminder that he can simply take over a game in a number of ways whenever he wants.
But after winning a number of awards, Olympic gold medals and, now, two NBA championships, does James still want to be the most dominant individual in the game?
Monday’s victory was, perhaps, a microcosm of Miami’s entire season. The reigning champs did just enough to secure home-court advantage in a weak Eastern Conference, with LeBron not fully-engaged yet still carrying the Heat, putting up MVP-type numbers while maintaining his status as the best player in the world, if not the NBA. With Wade in and out of the lineup and the Heat getting adequate contributions from everyone, James was surgically precise in how and when he expended energy – and in commanding fashion – over the course of season.
In those early minutes against the Nets in Game 4, James seemed content to watch his teammates and wait to see who, if any of them, would be able to help carry the load. James uncharacteristically passed to Wade in the corner knowing that he lacks an outside shot but perhaps hoping he could find a way to exploit his matchup against Brooklyn’s Joe Johnson. LeBron twice failed to take advantage of mismatches on offense, once against the underweight Shaun Livingston while only feet away from the basket in the low post and again from the top of the key against the undersized Deron Williams. He looked for Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers and Wade – anyone, really – to initiate the offense until finally hitting that first, casual shot on his way to 49 points, tying a career-best for postseason productivity.
In the second quarter, James sat on the bench and watched as Brooklyn took their first lead of the night. He was immediately inserted into the game. With the Nets confidently hitting their stride after halftime, James would play the entire second half. He couldn’t afford to sit, not with Chris Bosh and Ray Allen missing from outside and Wade gambling for steals – and losing – because he can’t straight-up defend Johnson or Livingston.
Miami’s offense was ugly in a way it often hasn’t been over the last four seasons, trapped in a half-court mire that only James was able to drag his way out of. But wasn’t this, being relied on to carry a team because no one else can handle the burden, the reason he left Cleveland and joined Miami in the first place? When James is responsible for half of Miami’s scoring, couldn’t he be surrounded by a cast of just about anybody else?
Miami’s upcoming summer might shape up to be as cataclysmic as it was in 2010, when James and Bosh joined Wade on the Heat’s roster. Then, it was a celebration of unique, superstar talent joining forces to win championships, the cure-all for the disease affecting James in Cleveland and Bosh in Toronto. The remedy has been administered successfully over the last two seasons and it may be this year as well.
But with Wade’s talent diminishing, Bosh transitioning into merely an outside-shooting threat, and LeBron bearing the yoke, ox-like, just as he did as a Cavalier, perhaps it’s time to re-examine the cliché of victory healing a team’s woes.
Or if LeBron departs Miami and seeks to fill his prescription with other, younger teammates, then we will look at Monday’s performance in Brooklyn as what could be the beginning of the end for the Heat’s “Big 3” era. Winning in such lopsided fashion might not cure the Heat’s anemic offense, the first symptom of a terminal disease.