Colbinii wrote:Texas Chuck wrote:I mean I point this out a lot to empty ears, but Lebron played Dallas 8x that year, not just 6. And Dallas limited him considerably in those RS games as well. And they had 3 wing defenders who all thought they had business guarding him 1v1, 2 7 footers on the court behind those guys basically at all times, the best zone defense in the league against a team with not nearly enough shooting, etc...
I mean yes most of this is on Lebron. But Dallas should get more credit than they get. Some seem to believe that title is just about Dirk going HAM. And he certainly did in the RS(should have been MVP perhaps) and in the West, but that was also a very deep, veteran, complete team with the deepest coaching staff in the league.
Maybe give them a little credit?
LeBron torched a team with Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard as defensive wings and with two 7' footers behind them [Duncan/Splitter] in both 2013 and 2014 [2 and 3 years later].
We can give credit for Dallas and focus on that aspect but talking about and focusing on LeBron and why he personally came up short doesn't necessarily sell Dallas short.
Oh this is less about me seeing to it that Dallas gets credit(though they should get more) and more about we might should cool it with the whole Lebron just didn't know how to win narrative which feels like something we could say about literally every superstar right up until they do win, but we typically don't because we know better.
And Lebron spent a decade after that series proving over and over and over he knows how to win. It's a lazy narrative attached to a player who doesn't play the approved way. And instead of leaning into that we should explore all the reasons he struggled. Most of which are about Lebron. But a non-negligible percentage is about Dallas specifically who despite what Wade fans want to insist, they made Lebron their focus and dared Wade to beat them again. And as good as Wade was in that series, he couldn't. Their plan was the right plan and executed to near perfection.
