Cavs and Heat....LeBron James sits on the bench. He was tired!
He had every reason to be tired. He single handed brought them back in the fourth quarter against a struggling NO team the night before. I watched the entire game. He is an incredibly smart basketball player. He knows there is a problem. As exquisite as some of these young teams are playing team ball, the Cavs are streaky and very inconsistent. He made the comment after the game that we cannot wait for players to come back, but we need to play with what we have. They get Love involved early and he is playing great, but at crunch time it is all James, and that is not a winning formula. He recognizes this, and could easily have played, but Miami is playing good team ball and great defense. I think he wants to step back and let this team jell, but if you watched the NO game, the Cavs would have been blown out if not for some incredible hard work by James. No, I think the realization of what I have been saying for five years is clear to him.......how can his talent elevate his teams to win. I do not have that answer. It has been obvious that his teams have not won historically and two titles may be it, and with Kobe retiring he is using that intelligence to perhaps elevate his game to James 2 where team flow and consistency beyond his individual play can bring them a championship. It is going to be tough this year. There are some incredible young players in the east who are only going to get better by playoffs. No team can be overlooked. He knows they need to be winning every game and no waiting for some miracle. I have seen few better fourth quarter efforts than what James did against New Orleans. It was incredible, but he knows......he knows what Chris Bosh said about playing with James....it is hard, and he knows he must solve the puzzle for them to win a championship. There are some great teams this year, but the Warriors are from another dimension, and James realizes that it will take excellent team play with EVERYBODY contributing. This is a pivotal moment in his career.