Lakers one win from NBA title
Just when Lakers look unsure, their star leads them to verge of title
LeBron James scores 28 points and Anthony Davis has 22 points in 102- 96 victory over the Miami Heat.
Where was LeBron?
For the first half of Game 4 of NBA Finals on Tuesday, that was the question.
Expected to lead the Lakers in an early onslaught of the upstart Miami Heat, LeBron James had been terrible.
This was his chance to show that the Game 3 upset had been a f luke, that Jimmy Butler’s “You’re in trouble” comment was just empty smack talk. This was his opportunity to again be the game’s greatest closer. And he was blowing it.
In the game’s first 24 minutes, James had three baskets and five turnovers. He spent as much time arguing with the referees as he did making plays. He missed awkward layups and made sloppy passes. He fumbled his dribble. He lost his composure. Where was LeBron? Soon enough, the Lakers and these Finals and everyone of Los Angeles who was in screaming at their televisions had their answer.
He was in crunch time. He was in winning time. He was in the biggest moments of the biggest game of the season. He was exactly where he’s always been.
The Lakers defeated the pesky Heat, 102- 96, because James was there to carry them when it counted, dragging them through a hassled second half and carrying them in brilliant closing moments.
Two days after losing their minds, the Lakers can start dreaming about their rings after taking a threegames- to- one lead forged again by James’ seemingly unbreakable will.
Only one team in NBA history has come back from a similar deficit to win the Finals. Interestingly enough, that team — the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers — had LeBron James.
The Heat do not. Start sewing that 17th championship banner. This sucker is over.
It actually was over earlier in the day when he sent teammates a text calling this a “must- win game”
“When I woke up from my nap this morning after our team meeting, I just felt that,” James said. “I felt that vibe. I felt that pressure. I felt like for me personally this was one of the biggest games of my career. I just wanted to relay that message, the type of zone I was in, the type of moment it was, and the kind of team we were playing against.”
The outmanned Heat indeed are scrappers. But James is in a completely different weight class.
“A ton of grit, a ton of fight,” the Lakers’ Alex Caruso said. “Good resiliency for us to come back and keep answering every time Miami threw a punch.”
A ton of LeBron, is what it was. When James walked into AdventHealth Arena before the game, he was wearing a white T- shirt adorned with a drawing of Kobe Bryant popping his jersey. It was a perfect fit. For long stretches of face- melting basketball Tuesday, he was pure Kobe.
His second- half surge began with a distant threepointer with 8: 18 remaining in the third quarter to give the Lakers the lead. He scored more points in the first six minutes of the quarter — nine — than in the entire first half.
At the quarter break, with the Lakers leading by five, Jared Dudley screamed on the bench, “Do not let them off the ropes!”
With great help from role players Kentavious CaldwellPope and Rajon Rondo, James did not, capping his fourth- quarter push with a series of plays that ended with an Anthony Davis threepointer for a nine- point lead in the final minute.
James lifted his head, closed his eyes and screamed. And why not? Some 2,500 miles away, a city was screaming with him.
With the score tied at 83- all, James had made the play of the game by dribbling through two defenders, bullying past two more, and throwing in a fallaway, one- handed layup. He was fouled too. He made the free throw. The Lakers led by three and never were so much as tied again.
The layup began a string of clutch events that was typical LeBron.
He was hammered on a layup and made two free throws. He grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled and made two more. Then he set up the other Lakers to finish it.
He pulled down yet another rebound and found KCP for a three and a five- point lead. He found KCP again on a driving layup that increased the lead to seven.
Then, fittingly, James sank the final two free throws to end the Heat chances.
Look at his pressure numbers. In the second half he scored 20 points with nine rebounds and four assists. In the fourth quarter he scored 11 and made all seven of his free throws.
“LeBron obviously put his fingertips on that down the stretch,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They had a handful of offensive rebounds, second- chance opportunities where we really defended well and got that stop and they were able to get another opportunity.”
That’s James. You defend him really well and he still beats you.
He finished with 28 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists and one step closer to history. If the Lakers can win just one of the three games, he will become the first player to lead three different franchises to NBA championships.
If that’s not one argument for him being the greatest player ever, what is?