Andrew Upshaw

Lebron James beat the Celtics by himself last night. He dropped 45 points, had 15 boards, and five dimes. He had 30 at the half and the heat had at least a 10 point lead all the way. Dude was unconscious from the floor hitting 19-26. That’s 73% shooting. He made it look easy at times and also hit a bunch of difficult shots, which he also made look easy. Going into the game there was chatter (again!) that Lebron isn’t clutch which Lebron responded to with one of his greatest games ever. The haters and Boston Celtics fans were quieted. For one day. If the Heat lose game 7 Lebron will hear it all over again. These people are stupid and don’t matter. Haters are saying that Lebron’s performance wasn’t truly clutch because it wasn’t a close game or the stakes weren’t high enough. Stupid.

Zach Lowe goes into detail here about Lebron’s Clutchness. He remembers the 2009 conference Finals between the Heat and Magic. Lebron was amazing in that series averaging 40, 10, and 10. No body remembers this because the Cavs lost. The bottom line in the column: sometimes Lebron is clutch, and sometimes he isn’t. Yo, it’s actually true of a lot of great players. Take Kobe for instance. Sometimes Kobe is clutch and sometimes he isn’t. Lebrn failed miserably in the Finals last year. Kobe failed miserably in the Finals in 2004 except no body remembers. That’s what happens when you have five championships. That’s what Lebron is trying to do right now. The best part about game 6 was Lebron’s demeanor. He was all business and didn’t get caught up in any bullshit. Lebron wants to win for his own sake, not for validation from a bunch of stupid people. He knows that if the heat lose in game 7 or in the Finals people will be on his ass. But those people don’t matter to him.

Lebron was amazing in game 6, but we can’t expect him to do that every time. There are some other positives from game 6 for the Heat. As John Hollinger of ESPN writes, The Heat held the Celtics to only 79 points. Unlike earlier in the series they got back on defense and stopped Rajon Rondo from going crazy on them. Chris Bosh played 28 minutes and was rusty again. But Kevin Garnett was only 6-14 form the field and scored only 12 points. Some of that could be Chris bosh because Bosh, unlike the other Heat players is tall enough to bother KG’s shot. Dwayne Wade was a no show for the first half again and when he started playing well in the fourth quarter the Heat ran away with the game. D Wade looked slow for the first three quarters and then got aggressive late. I think were 100% sure he’s not 100%. But did D Wade get better as the game went on or was his performance by design? A part of me thinks he was saving his burst and energy for when it mattered and with Lebron killing it early D Wade rode the wave and waited to aggressive later in the game. In game 7, the Heat would like to get more help for Lebron but I think the defense will be the key and if they can get stops consistently they’ll win game 7.

Against the Thunder, Lebron is gonna need some real help. He may have a game or two that he dominates so severely that the Heat roll easily, but OKC has scores like Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden. People will focus on the math up between Durant and Lebron, but at this point Kevin Durant has more support. And then the real question for the Heat becomes the health of D Wade and Chris Bosh.