this is stupid. lebron tried to turn it on in the 4th, and he failed. just b/c a great player wants to turn it on doesn't mean he can turn it on any given time he wants, unless you're michael jordan.
You're right up there with them. With the way your predictions have looked this year I guess LeBron doesn't have to worry about himself falling out of the top 10 in 3 years.
If he's not going to play 100% every game and tries to manufacture these storybook moments, how is that respectable? This isn't hollywood, I want to watch competitive games.
Not top 10 player in 3 years? Lol? He is top 1 in the NBA and will be for the next 5-6 years. He is entering his prime as a NBA player, and will only get better.
No link but an interesting article on ESPN talked a bit about the defensive strategy of Dallas. Though the article didn't get into details, it mentioned how good Dallas is in moving back and forth from a man-to-man defense to a zone scheme. The writer said this strategy was being applied by Carlisle to specifically confound James and, coupled with Marion and Kidd taking turns on James to keep him guessing about defensive looks, the strategy is working. Also, he criticizes James for not having developed a post game during his eight years in the league. It's turning out to be his Achilles' heel, allowing the much smaller Kidd to defend him for long stretches. In contrast, Nowitzki credits Avery Johnson for basically forcing him to develop his post game when he didn't have one, which is something I guess no Cleveland coach was able to do to James.
whenever lebron tries to post up, he gets doubled team immediately. he doesn't get the single coverage that wade gets. they're doubling lebron every time he steps foot inside the 3pt line.
A good post game is not just about scoring, but knowing how to make the pass out of the double team to take advantage. We all know James is an incredible passer, but how good is he at finding the open man or making the hockey assist from the double team? A real question because I haven't been paying that much attention to that part of his game.
How delusional. Do you even watch the games? Wade gets doubled way more than LeBron and during game 5 they even put Kidd on LeBron switching Marion on Wade. He still didn't take advantage of it. But hey... your eyes see only what you want to see.
I just watched the first quarter of Game 5, prior to Wade getting hurt. Small sample size but so far, Marion is guarding James and in the few times James tried to post up, the Mavs sent a soft double and recovered very quickly when James passed out. They weren't sending hard doubles to get the ball out of his hands. Not yet anyways. The more noticeable thing to me so far is that Miami's offense seems run plays for James or run them for Wade, but only one or two plays really utilized the two players together. It reminded me just a bit of the schizophrenic tendencies the Rockets offense had when we had McGrady and Yao in their prime.
I would spend some time analyzing LeBron's play in this finals series... but it hasn't yet risen to the top of what's more worth talking about there. His triple double in game 5 would have been nice. But when, on the other side of the ball, guys are making contested, clutch 3 point shots in the fourth quarter, and LeBron's shots are pointedly limited and simply bouncing off of the rim... I'd rather hold off on knocking LeBron, and instead rather be impressed with how Dallas has won 3 of these games up to this point.
Just finished rewatching the second quarter of Game 5, focusing on James' performance. While Wade was in the locker room, the Mavs' defense focused much more on James. When James tried to post up against Stevenson (Marion was on the bench), they sent hard double teams instead of soft doubles, but this actually opened up the offense for Miami, giving the other guys better looks at the basket. After Wade returned, Marion was back to guarding James. When James tried to set up in the post, there was no need for hard double teams because Marion was doing a great defensive job. But what I found really interesting was what happened before James established position in the low post. When he moved without the ball from the weak side, several Dallas players would get in his path so that it would take him some time to make his way into the low post. By the time James got the ball, there was often less than 10 seconds on the shot clock and he would rush his shot. I'm not sure if this is Dallas playing some great team defense, or if it's James (and Spoelstra) not knowing how to set screens and free up James off-the-ball. Probably a bit of both. But in general, it looked to me that Dallas did a great job making things difficult for James.
^^^ One more thing. I think the Mavs send hard and immediate double teams on James when he's being guarded by Stevenson or Kidd. They send soft doubles when it's Marion defending James. Sorry to keep harping on this, but IMO these defensive adjustments are why the Mavs are able to keep James contained and be up in the finals right now. Very impressive.
How can that guy say LeBron will not be the top 10 players in the next 3 years? are you kidding me? he's been good for the past couple years, definitely top 5 with kobe and wade. dude can score, rebound, assists, can literally play every single position is dominate, the only problem with him is really just the clutch issue. once he gets that going, he's gonna stay #1 for a long time
