Allow me to stretch my blogging fingers from a long winter's nap as I try to come out of hibernation here. If you're anything like me and have been watching the NBA finals, you may have noticed a thing or two. First off, how the Heat haven't swept this series 4-0 is beyond me. You build a 15 point lead in game 2, and a near 10 point lead in the 4th quarter in game 4 and still manage to play bad enough to lose? Give me a break. I haven't seen a choke that bad since my little cousin choked while attempting to eat a turtle burger. Haven't had one of those? Google it...
The fact of the matter is 1 factor stands out above all of the rest. King James is going from first to worst in a matter of a few days. Let's look at the 4 game progression. Game 1 he has 24 points, that's not bad! Good solid start to the finals and leading the Heat in scoring. Stuff it LeBron playoff haters! He's here to get it done this year! Game 2, 20 points and 8 rebounds, yeah that's not too bad considering Wade scored 36, that was a great compliment LeBron, nicely done. You can't be the prom king every game. Both performances mind you are at home, so not that bad. As stated, he can't be the main attraction every night. There's plenty of performers on this team that are going to shine. Kind of like if you combined every Cirque du Soliel to play at the same Vegas hotel on the same night at the same time in different rooms, you'd have quite the difference of interest from night to night. Some nights you just want to see the naked one, and some nights you want to see the water one.
Games 3 and 4 move to Dallas. I started to think LeBron didn't make the trip with the team. Game 3, the King has 17 points and 9 assists. Not incredibly bad, but when you're probably one of the two best players on the team, not to mention the highest paid, you can't afford to be the 3rd highest scorer on the team in the NBA Finals. It's just not going to get it done. When you have the Playoffs reputation that King James does, you can't afford to not be on point in the big show. I agree with the masses here, you have yet to prove yourself as a prime time performer such as one #23 over in Chicago a few years ago. You have a history of "giving up" when it's time, and I was just about to shed that persona for you...
Then Game 4 happened. The Heat escaped with their life in Game 3 and I figured they'd be ready for battle on this blustery June evening. Now let me state my allegiance for the Finals, my standpoint has always been "Anybody but the Heat" since the playoffs started. Don't mistake this blog as me being a fan of the Heat, that's just not the case. Ever since "The Decision", which was the biggest waste of an hour in my life since I ate Popeye's Chicken next to a rest stop in El Centro and barely made it to Yuma. It wasn't pretty. That being said, I finally saw the spark in Miami's eye and figured I'd go for the jugular and bet $5 on the Heat with one of my long time co-workers. He took the Mavericks. I've seen too many Mavericks chokes in the 4th quarter and knew I had the advantage if this game was close at all in the 4th quarter. Of course I had to forget about Game 2, what were the odds there, right? I'd might as well bet on someone getting struck with lightning twice on the same golf course.
All of a sudden, lightning struck twice. The Heat take a 9 point lead with about 8 1/2 minutes to go. I'm figuring my betting partner is swearing at his TV as we speak and I am feeling great. Then the lights go out in Georgia... Before I know it the game is over and I'm left with MY jaw open only envisioning my work comrade laughing at my horrible Facebook picture and taunting me because he's now $5 richer. I go to the Box Score on ESPN to see what happened... Are you kidding me? LeBoring has 8 points/7 assists/9 rebounds. Another coworker today tells me "Oh he almost had a triple-double didn't he?" Look, when you're the highest paid player in the NBA and you don't even manage to score double digit points in the Finals, you did NOT almost pull off a triple-double in my book. You have officially retained your title of Playoff Disappearing Act of the century. Not only am I out $5, but you have successfully managed to single-handedly fall back into your own routine and brought your team with you. Granted you somehow pathetically manage to be the 3rd highest scorer on the team for the game, so it's probably not ALL your fault, but you realize had you probably had 4 more points your team may just have pulled this off and made me $5 richer.
I won't even talk about shameful Mike Bibby's 0 point contribution, and I'm not expecting Joel Anthony to actually be an offensive producer in this league. That's not why you hired him. But come on King James, when was the last time you had a single digit scoring night? You had 1 other game ALL SEASON in which you scored under 10 points against Golden State, right? I don't care what team you played against if you have 1 game out of 82 played where you scored under 10 points, we'll forgive you for that. But watching possibly the ugliest 4th quarter in the NBA Finals in my 30 years of existence that I can recall, you did absolutely nothing to help your team to victory. So you officially remain where you started in this whole conversation, as a Playoff CHOKER until your prove differently and I hope & pray that Dallas takes you to town and beats you in 7 games.
LeBron, maybe you should worry less about your State Farm commercials and focus more on how to stay on top of your game until the middle of June. Nothing would be better than a Game 7 defeat, on my 30th birthday nonetheless, by Dirk and the Mavericks who oh by the way, managed to beat your pathetic self with a 102 degree fever in Game 4. Did anyone else score in the 4th quarter besides "Prince Wade" and "Ze German"? Not that I recall, but I'm sure someone did. It might be time for a role reversal to "King Wade" and "Jester James".
Who's your daddy? DIRK !
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