Criticize this!

When LeBron James and Chris Bosh teamed up with Dwyane Wade for the 2010-11 season, they immediately set the bar REALLY HIGH for themselves.  After their over the top, extremely premature celebration, they left their fans (and many others) thinking the rest of the league was going to fall over in their presence and let them win those titles.  For a large portion of the playoffs last season, that appeared to be the case.  Eventually, the Mavericks prevailed and LeBron James became a running punchline for (mostly casual) NBA fans throughout the offseason and for much of this season.  This season, it was clear it would be championship or bust for this Miami Heat organization.  Though they had their shares of ups and downs in this shortened season, the Heat once again found themselves on the cusp of returning to the NBA Finals with another chance to prove their critics wrong.  The Heat even jumped out to a 2-0 lead in this series, including a game two that the Celtics easily could have won.  It is the playoffs though and things can change in a hurry if you're not careful.  The Spurs hadn't lost a single playoff game (or ANY of their previous 20) before last Thursday.  In the blink of an eye, the young Thunder rolled all over them and took the next four to put themselves into their first NBA Finals since the Supersonics era (sorry Seattle).  Much like the Spurs, the Heat looked like they were on the way to running the Celtics right out of this series before it even became one.  Suddenly though, everything started to fall into place for the Big Four and the Celtics took a 3-2 lead thanks to some inspirational play from Kevin Garnett.

Here we were again, for this Heat team.  Granted, Chris Bosh hasn't been around for much of these playoffs, most people still aren't letting LeBron and these Heat off easy if they don't win the championship.  Honestly though, even if they do win the title this year, a lot of critics will still have a lot of negative things to say about this Heat team.  I understand making a few cracks here and there, but what I don't get is why so many people use the word "hate" when they describe LeBron James.  I watch a lot of basketball and I make my opinion known constantly.  But I don't think I would use a word like hate when describing any player that I watch play a child's game for a living.  If I had those kind of negative feelings, I probably just wouldn't watch basketball (see: NFL 2012 season).  That said, if the Heat don't win the title this year, it will still be looked at as a disappointment as it should.   Having dug themselves a 3-2 hole, the Heat needed to win a game in Boston before they could move this series back to Miami for a closeout game.  That would be no easy feat for Miami, as they had lost all six games in Boston in the LeBron era heading into last night. 

For the first few minutes, this game was close as a few players each from Boston and Miami were scoring.  The score was tied at 12 early on, until LeBron started to warm up.  LeBron only scored 2 points in the first five minutes of this game, before he completely took over in yet another performance for the ages.  This was akin to the Pacers series, when the Heat found themselves down 2-1 and they turned to their megastar to bring them back into that series.   Last night was a very similar performance to that game four and you have to kind of wonder why LeBron doesn't play like this every time he steps out onto the floor.  He is clearly capable of putting this team on his back and carrying them back to the Finals.  Once LeBron got going last night, there was pretty much no stopping him and you were almost better off getting out of his way, as he started to get a couple of and one baskets.  By the 2:30 mark of the first quarter, LeBron had 12 points and the Heat found themselves up 22-12 all of a sudden.  Rajon Rondo and company would do all they could to try and stay in this game, but it was pretty clear early on who this game was going to belong to.  As LeBron started to effortlessly sink shots, you got the sense that he wasn't going to disappear in the second half of this game.  The Heat were up by ten at the end of the first quarter, led by Lebron's early 14 points.  Dwyane Wade was 0-4 at this point. 

Again, I don't always like hearing Jeff Van Gundy talk, but I will agree with him when he is correct.  He echoed my statements during the second quarter about LeBron James being unfairly judged like no other player in NBA history.  It is what it is I guess, but as I said before it doesn't make sense to me how he can't do anything right in some "fans" eyes.  The lead continued to grow in the second quarter, as LeBron continued to hit tough shot after tough shot.  There was a constant swarm of white jerseys in his neighborhood as he continued to make difficult shots look all too easy.  Rajon Rondo and Brandon Bass were doing their best to try to keep this game close, while LeBron was just running rampant and scoring at will from pretty much any part of the floor. Led by LeBron's ridiculous 30 points, the Heat found themselves ahead by 13 at the half.  Dwyane Wade was practically non-existent on offense in the first half, making just one lone field goal.  Still, the Heat had to feel somewhat comfortable about the possibility of forcing a game seven on their own court.

The Heat cooled off considerably to start the third quarter and briefly it looked like the Celtics might make this a game.  Every time they would get the game within striking distance, there was LeBron hitting shots or finding Mario Chalmers open in the corner for three.  The Celtics were down by double digits for much of this contest.  Just as it appeared as though the Celtics were going to close the lead, LeBron James hit a three pointer to silence the rally.  The Heat were up 74-61 at the end of the third quarter and LeBron had 41 points.  Dwyane Wade had still been fairly quiet up until this point.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Wade finally awoke from his scoring slumber hitting consecutive shots that gave the Heat a 17 point lead.   If The Celtics were going to make a run and try to end this series at home, it was now or never for them.  After a Paul Pierce jumper, Shane Battier hit a three to give the Heat an 18 point lead.  This was quite a transition from the last game, where the Heat were now hitting many of their outside shots (7-16) and the Celtics seemed to be settling more (1-14) from three.  That and the fact that LeBron James was simply unstoppable from every angle.  He did cool off considerably in the fourth quarter but it was no matter as Dwyane Wade was finally hitting shots for Miami.  All of a sudden, the Heat had blown this game wide open with a 25 point cushion at the 7:00 mark of the final quarter.  It was pretty clear at this point that we were headed for a game 7 in Miami on Saturday.  It was a stunning turn of event for Celtics fans, as many of them were left rushing for the exits before the fourth quarter was even half over with.  A lot of people expected Miami to come out with a lot of energy in this game, but I don't think anyone was expecting a blowout.  I said on Wednesday that if Miami stood a chance in this game, they would need a complete game from LeBron James.  They got just that (45/15/5 in 45 minutes- he was taken out with the game well in their hands) and they now need only one more win for a return trip to the finals.  Win or lose, I am sure they will have many critics along the way.