After Game 3, Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com raised a few eyebrows with his assertion that LeBron was shrinking from the moment in the Finals.
LeBron (and the rest of the Heat) finished Game 2 poorly, and by deferring to Dwyane Wade at the end of Game 3, people have started to question his assertiveness in the clutch. This seems odd to me with the way that LeBron has closed games in these Playoffs, at times single-handedly finishing off the Bulls and Celtics in earlier rounds.
So I fired up the NBA Stats Cube to find LeBron’s clutch stats to see how he compares to the other superstars in these Playoffs. I only included stars that made the Conference Finals so that we had a big enough sample size for each player. The “clutch” is defined as five minutes or less remaining in the game with the score within five points. The stats are “Per 36 Minutes” so that a fair comparison can be made between two players with vastly different clutch minutes.
What does this table tell us? Well, even with his game-tying miss at the end of Game 3, Dirk Nowitzki (52.2 points, 57% shooting) is playing out of his mind in the clutch. But back to LeBron — his numbers look like they’re the second-best in the postseason. He’s averaging more points and is shooting at a higher rate than the so-called “closer” on his team, Dwyane Wade. Derrick Rose scored a few more points, but shot at a lower percentage and wasn’t doing it on the defensive end like LeBron has. (LeBron’s 4.2 blocks plus steals are the most of any player on this list. No one else is over 2.8 combined.)
I don’t have a problem with LeBron playing the role of facilitator in the clutch. He’s not the greatest one-on-one player; his pull-up jumper isn’t money and his three-point accuracy comes and goes, and he’s not getting to the line like he’s used to. While he didn’t score many points down the stretch in Game 3, he made the pass to the wide-open Chris Bosh on the baseline for what turned out to be the game-winning jumper. On the other end of the court, he has completely shut down the Mavs’ second-best scorer, Jason Terry.
We all know that LeBron didn’t come to Miami so that he could win a title by himself. He tried to do that in Cleveland and failed miserably. Every superstar needs help and LeBron has a lot of it now. Why are we surprised when he’s deferring to a red-hot teammate when the game is on the line?
It’s no secret that the Heat are under a microscope after all that transpired last summer, and while I was no fan of “The Decision,” I had no problem with LeBron wanting to team up with Wade and Bosh to try to win a championship. We criticize these athletes because winning isn’t as important to them as fame or fortune, yet when a player like LeBron puts himself in the best position to win multiple titles (even at the expense of personal accolades), we skewer him. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
What LeBron did to the city of Cleveland was inexcusable. But since then all he’s done is try to win a title — what’s wrong with that?
