C'mon sports genius. I expected better from you. Normally, I would agree with you, but not in this case. If you notice on the last play, LJ was tripled teamed. In addition, guess how many times he went to the FT line last night? Zero! In an incredible display of defense in the eyes of the zebras, Detroit did not commit one foul on LJ while he was in the act of shooting despite him being doubled and triple teamed all night. Total crap because he was driving the lane getting mugged and wasn't just standing around shooting jumpers until it became obvious that he wasn't going to get any calls. How many of you still believe that NBA refs don't influence games? Given all that, he did the right thing by passing to Donyell Marshall for the open 3.
Funny how if Marshall had made the shot, people would be praising Lebron for the decision to pass the ball. I'm amazed though, in this day and age of NBA prima donnas and whatnot, Lebron does a selfless thing and passes the ball while being completely covered, and STILL gets criticized for it.
my problem isn't with the final shot. I don't know if that is the call I would have made, but the coach wanted to go for the win and LJ set Marshall up great. The shot just didn't fall. In that situation I'd much rather see Lebron be a team player and go out there and dish the ball off like the coach asked than see him pout and refuse to go in to the game if he didn't get the final shot ala Scotty Pippen. I think it's fair to criticize Lebron for not to taking a single shot in the final six minutes and not getting to the free throw line once in the entire game. He just had an off night, for a superstar.
I can see that as fair criticism had he been shooting jumpers all night, but he drove the lane multiple times, got hacked, yet did not get one single call. Kinda hard to see how that's his fault.
Lebron had the angle on Prince on that last play. Sheed wasn't coming to help as he was outside the other side of the lane. Also, there was a possession towards the end when they ran a play to get the ball to Lebron on the left block. He had great position and single coverage. Yet instead of making a move or shooting an easy fadeaway, he waited and waited for a double team to come and then passed to Big Z for a long jump shot. He needs to take the shots at the end for his team if he's the best player.
Talk about straddling the fence....I inexplicably agree with both of you. However, Lebron is still young, and has a while to grow into the new MJ. In the meantime, I think it's encouraging that he hasn't forgotten what made him special in the first place, beyond his athleticism -- seeing the court, and making pin-point passes.
Jordan did the same thing in the Finals more than once (Paxon, Kerr), only difference is his guy hit the clinching 3.
Except that Jordan had over 30 points in both of those games and didn't mind taking the big shots in the final minutes. Jordan basically owned the 4th quarter. I hated that mother f**ker but he was a freak with the basketball. It's really not fair to compare Lebron to MJ at this point in his career. Give him a couple years and his game will evolve like MJ's did in the late 80's. I just hope Cleveland surrounds him with some talent.
