Lebron shrugs off Game 1 criticism
Heat star adjusts to fit team
MIAMI — With six words, LeBron James explained his playing philosophy.
“I’ve done more and lost before,” he said, when asked whether he should be more aggressive.
In short, James has put up big numbers in past playoffs but never got the result he sought until last season, when he and the Heat won a title. Sunday, the Miami Heat take on the San Antonio Spurs and try to even these NBA Finals at a game apiece.
“When I was in Cleveland we played Orlando in the Eastern Conference finals and I think I averaged 38, 36, or whatever I averaged,” James said, referring to the 2009 series, in which he averaged 38.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and eight assists. “I guess I should have done more in that series as well. But I can’t. ... I do what’s best for the team. What’s best for the team, it doesn’t always result in a win.”
Case in point: Orlando won that series in six games.
Case in point: James had a triple-double, one of the longtime gold standards in defining an outstanding all-around game, in the first game of these Finals against the Spurs — 18 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists. But it came in a loss in which he took only 16 shots, so the secondguessing was predictable.
And Saturday, James’ style was defended, not just by those on his side, but by the guy leading the other side.
“He’s a grown man,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “He doesn’t need any of you to tell him anything. He knows more than all of you put together. He (Best- of-7; x-if necessary) Thursday: San Antonio 92, Miami 88 Sunday: San Antonio at Miami, 7 p.m. Tuesday: Miami at San Antonio 8 p.m. Thursday, June 13: Miami at San Antonio, 8 p.m. x-Sunday, June 16: Miami at San Antonio, 7 p.m. x-Tuesday, June 18: San Antonio at Miami, 8 p.m. x-Thursday, June 20: San Antonio at Miami, 98p.m. All games on WATN-TV Channel 24, WMFS 680 AM/92.9 FM understands the game. If he makes a pass and you all think he should have shot it, or he shoots it and you think he should have made a pass, your opinions mean nothing to him, as they should not mean anything to him.”
Perhaps the most memorable game of James’ Miami tenure was Game 6 of last season’s Eastern Conference finals at Boston, when he put up a 45 points and 15 rebounds to dominate the Celtics and force a Game 7 — which the Heat won for a trip to the NBA Finals. It’s often ignored that he scored 45 points in a playoff game at Boston once before, in the final game of Cleveland’s 2007-08 season.
“The Game 6 in Boston, I mean, that was LeBron James’ show,” Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. “We did our job defensively, but we gave him the ball and got ... out of the way. That Heat star LeBron James (top), responding to criticism of Miami’s Game 1 Finals loss to Tony Parker and the San Antonio Spurs, said: “I do what’s best for the team. What’s best for the team, it doesn’t always result in a win.” was the moment, us being able to go into that game and for him to perform the way he did and us being able to dominate the way we did, that was the moment I said, ‘Yeah, we’re a championship team.’ ”
Still, Wade was asked, isn’t it unfair to expect that level of James in every game?
“Well, yeah,” Wade said. “But LeBron can do whatever he wants. He can control the game in any number of ways.”
James created a stir during this year’s East finals when he said he had to revert to his Cleveland way of thinking and assume more of the offensive workload. That was when Chris Bosh was struggling and Wade was particularly slowed by the right knee pain that he’s battled for about three months.
“I wish we could go 16-0 in the playoffs,” James said. “That would be awesome. There’s challenges that come from the game. You learn from game to game in ways that you can get better. ... I can’t worry about if people are saying, ‘ You should have done more, you should have been more aggressive’ because you got a loss.”
James insists that as long as Miami wins, his stat line will not matter.
“The Spurs did a good job of shrinking the floor ... so if that’s their game plan, we’re going to continue to exploit that,” James said. “And I believe our guys will be there to knock those shots down. But there’s also a few plays I could have been more aggressive as well. But Game 1, I think I improve as the series goes on as well, seeing ways I can be more aggressive from possession to possession.”