Remind me, in 2001, did Shaq completely disappear during the WCF and nearly sabotage his team's chance of winning, only for Kobe to bail him out with his amazing play? Because that's what happened in the ECF this season with Lebron/Wade. Wade was complete garbage until the 3:03 mark of the fourth quarter in Game 5. Even then, he only sparked the final run that Lebron finished. Also, was Kobe the better player throughout the regular season? Did he outearn Shaq in MVP votes during the season? Lebron played better than Wade throughout this entire season. Wade came on strong late, but don't forget that he got off to a very rough start (largely due to missing the entire preseason). Lebron led Wade in every statistical category except blocks, usually guarded the opposing team's best wing, and received 522 MVP votes (Wade got 24). The situations were entirely different. In 2001, Shaq was the clear-cut best player on the Lakers. Due to favorable matchups and a hot hand, Kobe was able to step up in the WCSF and the WCF. In the Finals, Shaq went back to dominating. Again, this was not the case with the Heat this year, where Lebron started better and played better throughout the majority of the season and postseason, up until the Finals.
Just a question, is the Finals MVP awarded for JUST the MVP of the Finals or across the whole duration of the playoffs? Because if it's the latter then Lebron has it locked. If not, it's Wade's to lose from this point on if they win the championship
LBJ may be the better all around player....but give me a Kobe, Wade, Or MJ killer mentality type any day of the week, those are the players that shine when pressure builds.
As of right now I don't even think it's close. Wade by a mile. Every time the Heat need a big bucket they turn to Wade. When ever the Mav's have managed to build a lead, the heat turn to Wade (sometime with LeBron on the bench). Lebron is the best player on the floor when everything is going well for the Heat. Wade is the best player on the floor when the Heat need to overcome adversity.
I disagree. When things weren't going well against the Bulls, it was Lebron who was the best player on the floor. He's the one who closed out multiple games in that series, including 9 points in the final four and a half minutes of game 2, with Miami facing the possibility of falling behind 2-0 in the series. He also closed out the final two games of the Celtics series. I would say that if only one of the two is playing at his absolute best, then that guy is the best player on the floor. So far in this series, that has been Wade. If both guys are playing at their absolute best, I still think Lebron is the better player.
You may be right but the previous post said as of right now, as in the finals. And in the finals Dwade has been better than lebron, without question. Lebron is decent for the first 3 quarters and then disappears.
If LeBron had no killer instinct at all then those Cleveland teams would have been 1st round exits or 2nd round exits pretty much every year he made the playoffs.
Seems like "killer instinct" is synonymous with "ballhog". LeBron got criticized for missing shots in game 2, and then in game 3 when he made multiple passes to setup key shots (including the game winner), he gets criticized for not taking shots. When he was in Cleveland he put up one of the greatest series ever against Orlando (averaging close to a a 40pt triple-double) and he got criticized there too!
I was just making sure he wasn't extending the "Lebron is great when things are going well and disappears when its tough" argument beyond this series. He was great when they needed him to be great against Philly, Boston, and Chicago. As for disappearing in the fourth, Wade played great and produced a total of seven points (all his own). Lebron produced 11 points (two points and four assists), and yet he disappeared?
This is nothing new. Early in Lebron's Cleveland career he drew a ton of criticism for often making the smart basketball play and passing up contested game-winners in favor of setting up his teammates for wide open attempts.
As I mentioned a few times already, Kobe averaged 34/9/6 in 8 games sweep against Queens/Spurs, arguably the two best opponents in that league, took over the game in comeback fashion a couple of times as well. And he's the sidekick. LeBron's 24.7/.447 performance in ECF couldn't even edge out Bosh's 23.2/.600. LeBron's very smart to get another Robin along him to support Batman.
Kobe had the better performance against the best teams in the league, and the disparity was way bigger than LeBron against Wade's. If anything, LeBron had Bosh to pick up the slack (23/.600) in ECF when Wade didn't perform. That said it all, he rides the coattail of Wade+Bosh combo, not just Wade. He wouldn't have joined heat had that not been there already. I don't think you can discount Kobe's playoff performance that year by bringing up the regular season. Magic won his first FMVP in his first season, because Jabbar was injured for one game. LeBron can win a million regular season MVPs and that wouldn't matter. Malone did that too.
Most of Skip Bayless' "points" are to get hits on his twitter account by making controversial remarks. Bosh gets a lot of good looks but he also proved he could handle double-teams well when he was the only option on Toronto. He's a very good player. He's having a tough series against Dallas because they have a lot of big guys, same guys who shutdown Gasol.
i think its a complete and utter tie. and this is the most pointless thread in the history of this bbs.
