During the NBA’s indefinite hiatus, I will be rewatching every game of LeBron’s NBA Finals career. Every Finals game from the last 20 years is available to NBA League Pass subscribers on the NBA app or through apps like YouTube TV. We will be going chronologically through LeBron’s Finals career. 

Previous Games

Game 1, 2007 NBA Finals: LeBron’s first Finals game.

Game 2, 2007 NBA Finals: LeBron bounces back but falls down 0-2.

Game 3, 2007 NBA Finals: LeBron gets the last shot but it doesn’t go.

Game 4, 2007 NBA Finals: Staying home.

Game 1, 2011 NBA Finals: LeBron’s first Finals victory.

Game 2, 2011 NBA Finals: Heat blow 15-point 4th quarter lead

Game 3, 2011 NBA Finals: Bosh game-winner helps put Heat up 2-1

The Miami Heat earned themselves a few days of reprieve from the season-long story that they can’t finish games. Chris Bosh’s clutch jumper made sure of that in Game 3 and now the Heat face an incredible opportunity to go up 3-1 in the best-of-seven series to take control. But the Mavs were only a shot away from going to overtime in Game 3.

Rick Carlisle elects to make a change from the outset of Game 4, inserting reserve guard JJ Barea into the starting line-up in place of DeShawn Stevenson. The move gives the Mavs another penetrator off the pick and roll, making it harder for the Heat defense to put them on their heels. But Dirk hits a fadeaway to start the game. Then Jason Kidd gets a block on Chris Bosh, leading to another Dirk fader. Then another Dirk jumper, this time off the assist from Barea, and it’s 6-0 Mavs. Dirk looks incredible and the Heat’s half-court offense looks like a Big 10 squad.

Apparently, the Heat have been bothered by a few things the Mavs have said, starting with the fact the Mavs believe the Heat aren’t the best defense they’ve seen, according to Jason Terry.

Then JET backs up his talk with a 3-pointer to push the Mavs ahead 17-14. In addition to Terry’s comments, he too was called out by his teammate Dirk Nowitzki, saying that they expect more from Terry in the 4th quarter. It’s rare these days for teammates to go on the record like Dirk did, but perhaps that’s what Terry needed, which he in turn verbally unleashed onto LeBron. Then Terry picks off LeBron’s pass after the 3-pointer. Terry is answering the bell and it looks like he may have found a way into the LeBron’s mind.

In the trash talk index, Noted LeBron Nemesis DeShawn Stevenson has also accused Dwyane Wade and LeBron of being actors who sell calls with flopping. Back in 2011, James Harden would not have been welcomed. So we have a two-pronged attack from the Mavericks of trying to publicly get into LeBron’s head, which at this time, we don’t know doesn’t work. This is only Game 8 of LeBron’s Finals career. He’s not quite the steely Finals veteran we know today.

LeBron, if he is reading this, would likely reject this on its face. But the visceral experience of watching this LeBron and even the LeBron of Game 4 in 2007 is drastically different. The Spurs did not play media mind games, because they did not need to. But the Mavs are again, in the spirit of the modern vanguard of the NBA, attacking James in a way that modern teams would use often in the future, even if it would lead to their downfall (see: 2016 Klay Thompson and Moe Speights).

Then LeBron’s noted enemy Stevenson hits his 3rd 3-pointer of the 2nd quarter alone. Get the ATM in the kitchen! It’s Stevenson time! Meanwhile, Dirk can’t miss. Whatever happened to him in the first three quarters of Game 2 has completely washed away. Then LeBron finds a cutting Wade for an easy bucket as the Heat lifer continues to be the scoring punch in the Heat offense. Also, the announcers started talking about the possible NBA lockout, which would cost us games the following season. Mike Breen says that Mark Cuban told him he wants to keep Tyson Chandler. Narrator: they did not keep him.

One of the great curiousities of watching this game, knowing the ending and knowing the reputation of it as a bad LeBron Game is watching James space the court. It’s great for Bosh and Wade, but maybe not the best thing for the Heat. He’s hanging out well beyond the 3-point line like a Houston Rockets role player in 2020. Seriously, he’s playing the same position that Jason Kidd is for the Mavericks. It looks more Robert Covington than LeBron James. Ball-mover, occasional shooter and driver. I hope that if you read this, you stop asking what would happen if LeBron committed to playing off the ball. This is it. Super-charged Robert Covington. The constant LeBron conflict of the necessary versus the natural is rearing its head, perhaps it may be one of the greatest conflicts of LeBron’s career.

Dwayne Wade isn’t making it any easier for LeBron to think this is the right way to go. LeBron makes a pass to Wade and LeBron then hits a free-throw line pull-up, but it’s a rare bucket for him on the night. Still, the Heat hold a 69-65 lead.

Mike Miller joins the series to make it 72-65 Heat for the first shot of the 4th quarter. Then Dirk gets stripped, LeBron gets in the half-court and the Mavs get a foul to slow the fast break. Then Haslem hits a midrange jumper to make it 74-65 and the Mavs find themselves in need of another comeback.

Then Jason Terry continues to back up his trash talk, driving to the rack for a bucket. Then James does a jump pass before he knows where to go with it and picks up a turnover. Then a Terry bucket it makes it 74-69 as Terry continues to answer the call laid out by Nowitzki. It may not have been as explicit as Larry Bird calling the 1984 Celtics a bunch of sissies, but it may have been just as effective. Meanwhile, Dirk has backed up all of the talk he’s had all series. He knows this is his series. He even told Nike Europe, according to my sources, to get an ad ready because he knew it was going to happen. Another 4th quarter has arrived and Dirk makes a layup to make it 76-73 with eight minutes left. But another thrilling Wade sequence of a block and lay-up makes it a 5-point lead for the Heat once again.

Dirk hit crucial free-throws to make it 82-78. Bosh answers with free-throws on the other end to make it 82-80. Stevenson misses two chances at open 3-pointers and Wade gets fouled by Kidd at the rim with 30 seconds left and the Heat down 2. Wade makes the first, but the second one hits every inch of the rim before going out of the cylinder and the Mavs getting the rebound up 81-80.

For the next Mavs possession, Nowitzki holds the ball until he’s ready to make his move, which Van Gundy thinks it’s too early, Dirk puts the Mavs up 83-80 with 14.4 seconds left. The Heat didn’t make a shot for the last seven minutes until a Wade drive for a dunk to make it 84-83 Mavs. However, that was as close as they would get for the rest of the night.

LeBron just finished with 8 points, his lowest total ever in a Finals game. And after a reprieve from all the talk about not showing up in the clutch, that will only continue to get louder as the Mavericks look to take a 3-2 series lead in Game 5.

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