Almost one year ago Lebron James announced that, ''I am going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat.'' A short time later the self proclaimed ''Heatles'' took to the stage in their home arena proclaiming a new era and that they would win, '''not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven championships.'' As a result, James became one of sports most hated figures. His decision to change team was over the top and lacked true class from a gifted player. Today we are questioning the Heat more than ever as the Dallas Mavericks defeated them in 6 games for the NBA championship. It was clear that the Mavericks outplayed, out hustled the Heat from beginning to end. Miami failed to show team chemistry which ultimately proved to be a deciding factor in this series. While Wade and James mocked the opponents best player and finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas was working hard to bounce back from their '06 finals defeat. Dwayne Wade talked about sacrifice that each player would have to make to better propel themselves for an NBA championship. However this ''sacrifice'' during the finals turned into lack of effort, a lack of physical play and the inability to finish games. It was clear in the finals especially in games 3 and 4 that Dallas wanted it more. Cameras often captured the heat with their shoulders slumped or with their heads down. Furthermore this led to a lack of physical play. Lebron James is at his best when he gets the ball on the perimeter and attacks the lane due to his size and incredible athletic ability which most of the time leads to one or the other happening. He makes the shot/dunk or he is fouled sending him to the free throw line which is not a bad thing as his career free throw percentage is 74%. Many times during the games he was guarded by smaller defenders. James is 6'8 and he was often defended by Jason Kidd and Deshawn Stevenson who are 6'4 and 6'5. I was often stupefied that he did not take advantage of this size advantage especially when he had two other superstars on his team on the court at the same time, which prevented double teams. This is a major flaw in his game that is preventing points from bring scored which could have been useful in their dreadful fourth quarters. When Lebron is getting to rim good things happen, with this timid play that we saw it was clear that Miami was going to struggle.
The fourth quarter problems did not begin to occur until the finals. Miami even had a miraculous game 5 comeback led by James in the Eastern Conference finals against the Bulls. This is a result of bad coaching and again lack of aggressiveness by Miami. It seemed as though they lost that spark and determination they had in the first three series in which they no doubt looked like a championship team.
Miami, next year will be a contender that is no question. But the team needs to rally around the big 3 and realize that they are capable of being beaten. On a coaching stand point there needs to be a more disciplined run team as well as motivation from the coach. Current head coach Eric Spoelstra has a championship caliber team and just needs to put the right pieces in the right place. As for Lebron he needs to come back next year, hungrier and ready to do whatever it takes to win that ring. This team led by James will for sure be a contender next season however there is a lot of work that still has to be done to achieve winning the championship.
