LeBron James foiled the Boston Celtics’ plan to advance to the NBA Finals Thursday night, but moving forward, will his perpetual prowess be enough?
The Miami Heat, even with a healthy Chris Bosh, are not a deep team. Once again, James and Dwyane Wade were the only members of the team to score in double-figures, and Wade did so on an abysmal night from the field.
James carried Miami to a Game 6 victory, the way that we would expect a leader to. But will that make him a winner? Will it make the Heat a winner?
The answer is no.
James scored 45 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and dished out five assists on 19-26 from the field. The rest of Miami scored just 53 points on 18-50 from the field. And within the shaky dynamic that is the Heat’s offense, that’s a fairly typical stat line, which isn’t enough to win a championship.
When James headed to South Beach, it was to win a title. More importantly, though, it was to ensure he wouldn’t be tasked with winning a title alone. But that’s essentially what he’s tasked with now, and what he would have been tasked with in Cleveland.
Bosh is still recuperating from his abdominal injury, Mike Miller is caroming the most open of shots off the back and front of the rim, and Wade is a shell of his dominant self. This has left James completely alone. He’s the only one who can step up and take over the game, and he’s the only one, right now, who presents a truly consistent matchup headache for Miami’s opponents.
While this reality allowed the Heat to throttle the Celtics Thursday, who’s to say it won’t be different Saturday night? And who’s to say it won’t be different against the Thunder in the finals? James cannot score the way he did in Game 6 every night, it’s just not plausible, even for a player of his caliber.
Something in James is going to give eventually. At some point, he’s going to have an off night, going to succumb to the rigors of 45 minute game logs and going to be unable to will his team to victory on his own.
And whose going to step up then? Bosh? Wade?
Their reputations suggest they will, but their recent struggles imply otherwise.
So, while James, on his own, is enough for the Heat to win on any given night, he’s simply not enough for them to win every night.
And in the grand scheme of things, that’s the difference between championship attainment and the ring-less finger James had better become accustom to seeing.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com. Follow @danfavale on Twitter for his latest posts and all things NBA.
