Maybe LeBron James used all of his intensity in the pregame speech. (And it wasn’t that great a speech.)
After that, he was done.
There hasn’t been such a sad disappearing act since Burt on Soap. (You youngsters probably have to Google that.)
I mean, Shane Battier is wondering why LeBron is spending so much time outside the 3-point line.
There are several reasons LeBron James will never be Michael Jordan, but high on the list is that he hasn’t played for a coach with any offensive imagination. The Triangle offense didn’t make Michael Jordan, but it made life easier for him.
People like to say James is like Magic Johnson. I’ve had that brought up several times on radio shows recently. Wrong.
James is a very good passer, has excellent court vision and handles the ball well for a big man. He is also one of the fastest players with the ball in the league, perhaps even in league history.
But there are only a handful of players in NBA history who ran the point with the skill and style that Magic did. James isn’t one of them.
Anyway, James isn’t playing in an offense determined to get up and down the floor like Magic’s Showtime Lakers.
James is playing with a team that is plays like they are the Bad Boy Pistons on defense, and the Cleveland Cavaliers, circa 2009, on offense.
The problem for James in this series is he isn’t playing the role of LeBron James in the Cavs’ offense, as he did for seven years and as he did in the Eastern Conference Finals. Dwyane Wade has the LeBron role in this series. James is one of the stand-and-watchers, that group of players whose jobs are to keep the ball moving, shoot an occasional trey and get back on defense.
He could go out of the offense more than he does and make things happen. But that’s not always his game. One of the reasons he averages two more assists per game than Jordan is he is willing to get more teammates involved, even though they haven’t been as talented as those with whom Jordan played.
Funny thing is James is averaging fewer assists per game in this year’s playoffs than he did in any playoffs with the Cavaliers. With better teammates, you would think he would average more, right?
Mike Brown’s offense isn’t nearly as bad as Eric Spoelstra’s, if you can describe that as an offense.
Spoelstra’s offense reminds one of the one that Michael Jordan played in … before Phil Jackson and Tex Winter showed up.
Keep in mind that in 1989, 26-year-old Jordan took only eight shots (one in the fourth quarter) of an Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Detroit Pistons. … Head coach Doug Collins.
James, 26, took only 11 shots (one in the fourth quarter) last night. (Of course, he wasn’t being guarded by Dennis Rodman.)
Not getting James involved in inexcusable.
James not going out of his way to make things happen is a bit more forgivable and somewhat understandable, but at some point a smart basketball player should recognize that the plan isn’t working and he use his physical tools to overcome said plan.
Whatever the design, deviation that leads to success is far more acceptable than James willfully watching the clearly weaker Mavs make a series of it because he is trying to be a “facilitator.”
James should erase that word from his vocabulary and try being a basketball player for a change.