With his team trailing the Utah Jazz 71-78 entering the 4th quarter Friday night, LeBron James did what he's been doing all season, he put on a dominating performance.
James scored 17 of his 35 points in the 4th. He hit 8 of his 9 shots including a 3 to give Miami a 1 point lead with 1:07 left in the game and an insanely difficult jumper with 26 seconds to go that gave them a 3 point lead.
Up 2 with 14 seconds to go, Dwyane Wade missed a crucial free throw on one end before fouling Devin Harris on an And-1 on the other.
Down 1 with 4 seconds to go, the Heat inbounded the ball to LeBron who cut left, drew a double-team and made a bounce-pass to a wide open Udonis Haslem at the free throw line. The elbow jumper is Haslem's bread and butter shot but he missed it this time and hey, it happens, that's basketball. But how people can turn tonight's game into a once again LeBron comes up short in the clutch moment is beyond my comprehension.
James strapped the team on his back and carried them tonight and anyone who can't see that should be slapped and have their basketball watching privileges revoked for at least a week. To say that LeBron "has got to take that shot" like Jon Berry did on SportsCenter is completely illogical. Basketball 101: When you're double-teamed and a teammate is open you pass him the ball. Those guys get paid too.
Making the walk-off shot looks great on your career highlight reel but more often than not it's not the winning basketball play. Michael Jordan won Titles with John Paxton and Steve Kerr hitting the game winners. Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan won Championships with Robert Horry hitting the walk-offs.
Teams double-team players for a reason. It's a defensive tactic to prevent that player from scoring. Other players have to step up when that happens. Although he could have, James didn't throw Haslem(or Wade) under the bus. He took the blame himself Tweeting, "Really wanted tonight's game. I just had to make one more dang play out there. A stop, rebound, shot, assist, block, whatever."
To say that LeBron's not "clutch" because he hasn't hit a walk-off shot since May of 2009 is nonsensical. Being clutch is more than hitting buzzer-beaters. It's about making the right play down the stretch whether that means a shot, a pass, a block, a steal or whatever your team needs you to do.
James doesn't have the resume of buzzer-beaters that Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony do but he's a better passer, defender and facilitator than both of them (and outscored them both each of the past 4 seasons). LeBron also has better "clutch numbers" (last 5 minutes, 5 points or less) than both of them this season as well as last.
Melo's 14 walk-offs are second only to Kobe's 16 among active players but his teams have only made it out of the 1st round of the playoffs once even though he and LeBron entered the league in the same year. I like Carmelo Anthony, I really do, but I'll take the guy who wins games by making his teammates better over the guy shooting over double and triple-teams every time.
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