Heat’s Big 3 savors championship quest
bration, and Bosh collapsed in a corridor, overcome by emotions.
The grieving period lasted a couple of weeks, and the Heat went back to the grind.
Wade worked on strength and stamina.
“I tried to work on my body so I could be strong enough to make it all the way through and be as strong as I can at the end of the season,” said Wade, 30, who still missed 17 games of the abbreviated and compressed regular season and has had a knee drained at least once in the playoffs.
Bosh contemplated the psychological side.
“It was just thinking about those moments we had in last year’s Finals,” Bosh said. “It was more so mental than anything else. Just building that will to win in important situations. We’re just now seeing all that stuff, all the work we did in the summer. That comes to fruition now.”
How did he build that will to win?
“Going through the bad situations and having all summer to think about ifs and would’ves and could’ves and should’ves and just living with that gutwrenching pain every single day,” Bosh said.
James dominates in paint
But so much of the Heat’s journey has been focused on James, an extraordinary athlete lacking a title into his ninth NBA season.
Spoelstra talked with college football coaches to better learn how to use James and Wade together in basketball’s version of the spread offense.
And James did what he has done every offseason: worked on a part of his game that needed improvement. This time it was his low-post game, which was non-existent against the Mavericks in the Finals. Why wasn’t he taking advantage of his uncommon mix of strength, size and finesse — a combination of Karl Malone and Allen Iverson — to dominate opponents?
James chose to work out with one of the best, Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon. “I’ve talked to him three times since the postseason started,” James said.
He spent a week in Houston working with Olajuwon on post moves. Now, driving to the basket or posting up, James is nearly unguardable. Of his 42 made field goals against Oklahoma City, 35 have been in the paint, including 29 at the rim.
“Staying in the post will get you easy buckets,” James said, relaying the instruction Olajuwon delivered. “He also tells me to continue to have fun. That’s the thing he noticed with me this year. He’s seen me have a lot of fun, and I give a lot of thanks to him for allowing me to go down there and work with him for that week.”
Last season, James was criticized for not being a clutch player in the Finals. In clutch time against the Thunder — the final five minutes of a game when neither team leads or trails by more than five points — James ranks first, with 14 points, shooting 4-for-7 from the field and 5-for-6 on free throws.
His growth off the court found its own journey.
Away from basketball, his demeanor is relaxed and focused. It’s not just his voracious appetite for books, although that is a part of it.
“It just slows my mind down,” James said. “It just gives me another outlet. . . . Those couple hours of the day or those 20 minutes, 25 minutes before the game just gives me an opportunity to read and think about something else and get a sense of what else is going on besides the game of basketball. “It’s made me comfortable.” He has revealed more about his shortcomings, admitting at the start of this year’s Finals that he played below his standards in last year’s. He lamented his 2011 Finals performance again Wednesday.
“Last year, after Game 6, after losing, once again, I was very frustrated,” James said. “I was very hurt that I let my teammates down, and I was very immature.
“Like I said, last year I played to prove people wrong instead of just playing my game, instead of just going out and having fun and playing a game that I grew up loving and why I fell in love with the game.
“So I was very immature last year after Game 6 towards you guys and towards everyone that was watching.
“One thing that I learned, and someone taught me this,” James said, “the greatest teacher you can have in life is experience.”
Figuring out how to win
The journey for the Heat hasn’t been easy. It’s not supposed to be.
They trailed the Indiana Pacers 2-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinals and won, despite losing Bosh in the opener to a lower abdominal strain that sidelined him for nine games.
Down 3-2 against the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals, Miami forced a Game 7 and won the series.
The Heat opened the Finals on the road and lost Game 1 to the Thunder. But three touch-andgo victories have followed.
They figured out how to win without Bosh, who didn’t return until late in the series against the Celtics.
They figured out how to win with Bosh coming off the bench and eventually when he returned to the starting lineup.
Perhaps, the Heat have figured it all out. At least for this season.
“My approach won’t change and it won’t be difficult,” James said. “I have a job to do, and my job is not done.”