After watching that game, there is no doubt in my mind that Lebron James is the best basketball player in the NBA, maybe the world, universe, whatever. The way he dominates in every aspect of the game is incredible. He scores with ease, passes with ease, steals with ease, blocks with ease, rebounds with ease, etc. It honestly looks so damn easy for Lebron, that one can't help but be reminded of Jordan's "with ease" style; consequently, one then cannot help but wonder whether or not he'll ditch basketball in the middle of his prime to go play baseball.
That being said, the refs either really like Lebron, or are just too busy being amazed that they're distracted from making good calls. The first example would be this "block" by Lebron on Howard with about a minute left in the 1st quarter.
Yes, the play was incredibly atheltic, but not all-ball. There was enough contact on Howard's arm from Lebron's swing, and plenty enough contact from the bodies to call the foul. Considering the foul called on Howard later in the game (which I will later address), this is a clear foul. But once again it all comes back to what has almost ruined an incredible playoffs this year: inconsistent officiating.
Now let's jump to the 4th quarter, 40 seconds left. Lebron takes it the basket, only to meet a wall of Magic defenders and a useless Zydrunas Ilgauskas. He picks up his dribble and plants with his left. Pietrus, who by the way gave a tremendous but futile effort defending Lebron all game, catches up to the now stationary Lebron and incidentally sweeps his planted leg from him. Lebron repositions his brand new pivot foot, swivels around and dishes to Delonte who nails the clutch three. This travel was so obvious (fellow Twitterer Kevin Durant saw it too) and I can only think that the refs were checking out some hottie in the stands.
Finally, with 30 seconds left in the game after Lewis knocked down a jumper to take back the lead, Lebron once again attacks the basket, this time only meeting Dwight Howard. Howard, aware that he has five fouls, makes the smart play and jumps straight up and puts both hands in the air instead of going for the block. Lebron being Lebron, goes directly at Howard, draws contact, gets the whistle, and knocks down the impressive floater. But there shouldn't have been a whistle. As I said, Howard jumped straight up and didn't even go at the ball. Not much else to say.
Now on to Dwight Howard. Some people (coughmr.condecough) might use his 14-20 from the field for 30 point performance as evidence that he is in fact a very good offensive post player. Some people might be wrong. Howard's offensive moves consist of:
- an off-ball spin move for an alley-oop
- when facing up the defender, a hard-dribble into a spin move
- when backing down a defender, a lean into the defender, followed by a hard-dribble into a running hook shot
That's it. All these moves didn't work against Kendrick Perkins. The Celtics were able stop Dwight's offense (see games 1, 2, 5, and 7) without using double teams because Kendrick Perkins' speed and strength prevented Howard from making off-ball moves and his crazy running hook shots. The only time Howard was able to make a scoring impact was when he made more hustle plays (offensive rebounds, coming off pick and rolls well, etc. see game 6). Now he's going up against a big, slow, white guy (Z-Dawg) who has no chance one-on-one against him. Therefore, the Cavs have to double up, leaving the Magic's deadly shooters open for their shots.
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