The Lebron Thread (Pt. 2)

[colts18]

Am I the only one who notices that LeBron gets Kobe lazy on D occasionally which is why he gives up so many 3 pointers. He gives a lot of spacing to his man, essentially giving up the 3. But worse to me, is that Hinrich and Deng were consistently blowing by LeBron. That shouldn't be happening all the time.

[mademan]

He was playing pretty terrible D in the first half. No question about it.

[mopper8]

Before last night, Lebron's previous flagrant foul had been for a hit on . . . Dwyane Wade

[Mutnt]

Am I the only one who notices that LeBron gets Kobe lazy on D occasionally which is why he gives up so many 3 pointers. He gives a lot of spacing to his man, essentially giving up the 3. But worse to me, is that Hinrich and Deng were consistently blowing by LeBron. That shouldn't be happening all the time.

LeBron only occasionally plays lock down defense (usually only in stretches when Miami cranks the defense up a few notches), most of the time he will rely on his teammates to help on penetration, which would be fine if your front court didn't consist of Bosh, Haslem and Battier...

[Jordan23Forever]

Am I the only one who notices that LeBron gets Kobe lazy on D occasionally which is why he gives up so many 3 pointers. He gives a lot of spacing to his man, essentially giving up the 3. But worse to me, is that Hinrich and Deng were consistently blowing by LeBron. That shouldn't be happening all the time.

To be fair, for Hinrich at least in the 4th quarter, it looked like Lebron was purposely playing him from the side and behind. if not, he wouldn't have taken the defensive angles he did. That one block where he pinned Hinrich to the glass was monstrous and hysterical.

[colts18]

To be fair, for Hinrich at least in the 4th quarter, it looked like Lebron was purposely playing him from the side and behind. if not, he wouldn't have taken the defensive angles he did. That one block where he pinned Hinrich to the glass was monstrous and hysterical.

The Heat were toying with Hinrich in that quarter. They were begging him to drive since I assume they realize he doesn't want to finish it at the rim. A good example is the Bosh block. He should have shot it earlier but he got in the paint and realized, there is no one here trying to stop me. He was hesitant since he wasn't sure what to do, then he shoots the floater that Bosh rejects.

[PCProductions]

Lebron definitely picked his spots on defense, but he's capable of locking anyone down at any time. He had some monster chase down blocks but I think the defensive issues were more on the side of bad team communication. As Sideshow said, I'm excited to see how he reacts to this game in his next 11.

[PCProductions]

Is there any explanation for 2007? It's the only year where he's statistically regressed in his whole career. The irony of it all was the fact that he made his first finals that year... Weird.

The offseason prior to that one was when he first put on weight and essentially got the body he has now, so there was an adjustment curve, particularly with his shooting, which progressed from 03-06, regressed in 07 and 08 and then shot back up in 09.

Second, that was the first season he took defense seriously, and became an impact defender (not quite at post 08 Olympics level yet), so there was a learning curve there as well. More attention to defense led to weaker offensive numbers. On that note though, check out the 07 run through the Eastern Conference again, he was playing some legit defense that postseason. A BIG part of the reason Cleveland progressed to the Finals in the first place was their defense complimenting Lebron's offense, and for the first time in his career, HE was a major part of that.

This is interesting. For what it's worth, his leap in DRtg from 2006 to 2007 shows what you're saying is definitely true. And this is also yet another reason why PER is such a flawed stat.

[D.Brasco]

Insane duo production during the streak:


LeBron James: 27.0 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 8.0 APG, 1.9 SPG, 0.9 BPG, .575/.374/.769 shooting

Dwyane Wade: 22.8 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 5.8 RPG, 2.4 SPG, 1.6 SPG, .536/.111/.754 shooting

I have to say Wade seems to have really found his niche on the team with lebron at this point.

[GreenHat]

Why can't Deng hold Lebron anymore? Is it his wrist that is bad or what? He used to do a decent job on him.

Not sure about Deng specifically but Lebron has averaged 30 against the Bulls and I don't remember Deng having a big downward impact on Lebron.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=jamesle01&p2=denglu01

[GreenHat]

From the GB

NBA TV ‏@NBATV 2m
"It's been happening all season & I've been able to keep my cool. But it's getting to me." - @KingJames on fouls

He's clearly aware of it. It's inexplicable to me, seeing as he's very clearly attacking the basket far more this season than he has in at least the past 2, and his FGA within 10ft are at their highest point since 2008.

Yeah its crazy that as his profile within the game has gone up his respect from the refs has gone down. He's being treated way worse than any other star ever.

[GreenHat]

Am I the only one who notices that LeBron gets Kobe lazy on D occasionally which is why he gives up so many 3 pointers. He gives a lot of spacing to his man, essentially giving up the 3. But worse to me, is that Hinrich and Deng were consistently blowing by LeBron. That shouldn't be happening all the time.

To be fair, for Hinrich at least in the 4th quarter, it looked like Lebron was purposely playing him from the side and behind. if not, he wouldn't have taken the defensive angles he did. That one block where he pinned Hinrich to the glass was monstrous and hysterical.

Yeah it did seem like he was playing from the side.

I do think it was a mistake switching Lebron onto Hinrich though given the rest of the players on the floor. It wasn't like it was Rose, why waste Lebron on Hinrich especially to have him guard him like that.

[JulesWinnfield]

15 point first quarter for Lebron, 3 for 3 from downtown, 5 for 6 from the floor. Heat finally start a game fast for once, up by 10 in New Orleans

Edit: Just nailed another trey, 4 for 4 from deep

[toodles23]

15 point first quarter for Lebron, 3 for 3 from downtown, 5 for 6 from the floor. Heat finally start a game fast for once, up by 10 in New Orleans

He made a couple of heat check threes, he rarely tries those since he got to Miami, and he makes them even more rarely. Fun to see them go down.

Holy ****, he just drained a ridiculously contested three. 4-4 on threes, another heat check is guaranteed to come.

[JulesWinnfield]

Why did the broadcast make it seem like Lebron was questionable for tonight? Did i miss a minor injury report?

He's locked in right now, 7 for 8 from the floor, 4 for 4 from 3

Edit: Make it 5 for 5 from three now

[jjgp111292]

6 straight three's...wow.

[toodles23]

Finally, Lebron's going to get to sit a 4th quarter. Hopefully he gets to sit a game or two down the stretch of the season.

Very Cleveland-esque game from him, he drained all sorts of heat checks early, then went passive and couldn't hit anything the rest of the game. So predictable.

In that stretch at the end of the first and beginning of the 2nd, he had 23 points in 5:28 of game time.

[PCProductions]

That was an L-Train in the Bradley Center type game. Fun to watch

[SideshowBob]

Last 36 Games

Record 34-4

115.9 ORTG (+10.2)
103.7 DRTG (-2.0)

+10.8 SRS

Lebron ON Court ORTG: 119.8
Lebron ON Court DRTG: 101.9
NET: +17.9

Code: Select all

MP    PTS    TRB    AST    STL    BLK    TOV   TS%    eFG%   GmSc   ORTG
37.9  27.7   7.9    7.6    1.9    0.9    3.1  .660   .620    25.8   129

39 PER in his last 7 games. 40 in the last 5.

[D.Brasco]

What did you all think of the grantland article on lebron's game evolution?


http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/910 ... ng-machine

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