| LeBron's Career At A Crossroads Authored by Brandon Hoffman - May 13, 2008 - 12:38 pm
The odds of a team coming back after trailing 0-2 in the NBA playoffs are astronomical.
But just last season, the NBA had two teams come back from such a deficit.
The Utah Jazz won four of the next five games versus the Houston Rockets to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals and the Cleveland Cavaliers came back to beat the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Facing the Boston Celtics in this year’s playoffs, LeBron James and the Cavaliers were staring at their fourth 0-2 deficit in three seasons.
In 2006, the Cavaliers lost the first two games to Detroit before ultimately losing that series in seven games.
In 2007, Cleveland won four straight games against Detroit in the Eastern Conference Finals after losing the first two games of that series.
The Cavs were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2007 NBA Finals.
Boston dominated Cleveland in the Conference Semifinals’ first two games. They held Cleveland to 33% shooting and forced LeBron into 8-of-42 from the field and 0-for-10 from the 3-point line.
Despite leading the league in scoring this season, there are still glaring weaknesses in LeBron’s game. Those weaknesses are being exposed versus Boston, just as they were exposed against the San Antonio Spurs in last year’s NBA Final.
The Spurs held James to 36% from the field last year — completely befuddling him on offense. San Antonio forced James into 23 turnovers over four games. LeBron has committed an identical 23 turnovers in his first four games versus Boston.
The blueprint to stop James is simple: limit his penetration and double-team him on pick-and-rolls.
Make him a jumpshooter.
LeBron shot 1-for-27 from outside the paint in the first two games, both Cavalier losses. He connected with somewhat greater accuracy in the next two games — both Cavalier victories — but is still just 7-of-54 (13%) shooting from mid-range and beyond over the course of the series.
Playing at home, Delonte West (7-of-11, 4-of-6 from the 3-point line, 21 points) and Joe Smith (7of-8, 17 points) picked up the slack in game 3’s 108-84 victory.
Wally Szczerbiak (6-of-11, 2-of-4 from the 3-point line, 14 points) and Daniel Gibson (5-of-9, 2-of-4 from the 3-point line, 14 points) stepped up in game 4’s 88-77 win.
To his credit, James has done an outstanding job of facilitating the offense the past two games (8 assists in game 3, 13 assists in game 4) but role players like West, Smith, Szczerbiak, and Gibson rarely have big games in the playoffs away from home. The pressure is too great.
Either James starts hitting from mid-range and beyond or he and the Cavaliers go home early.
It’s that simple.
Boston won’t make the same mistake Detroit did in last year’s Eastern Conference Final and let James get easy points near the basket at home.
Led by Defensive Player of the Year and coached by defensive mastermind Tom Thibodeau, the Celtics are too disciplined for that to happen.
If LeBron is to take the next step in his development and lead his team to a higher level, he must become a better shooter. And there’s no substitute for becoming a great shooter. One has to put in the time. It takes hours and hours of repetition.
After five seasons in the league, it’s clear that James hasn’t devoted himself to that aspect of his game.
While his numbers continue to increase, they are more a reflection of his do-everything role (which must change as well) on the Cavaliers and his ability to get to the basket.
That’s not to take anything away from James, he’s an unbelievably talented player and to his credit, he attacks the basket because there are few teams that can keep him from getting there.
But great defensive teams (and he will face many throughout his career) will continue to take away his strengths and expose his weaknesses — weaknesses that a box score and PER are incapable of taking into account.
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