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.

Game 4, 2011 NBA Finals: LeBron has 8 points in Finals loss.

Game 5, 2011 NBA Finals: LeBron bounces back, but Mavs shoot the lights out.

Game 6, 2011 NBA Finals: Jason Terry and the Mavs burn down the Heat in Miami.

Game 1, 2012 NBA Finals: Westbrook and Durant lead comeback to take 1-0 lead over Heat.

Game 2, 2012 NBA Finals: LeBron applies lessons he learned from the Spurs in 2007 in a road win against the Thunder.

The Heat are back on their home court for the NBA Finals for the first time since Jason Terry, Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavs engulfed them in flames. The Heat, now in the favorable position of stealing homecourt advantage with a Game 2 win, are looking to keep their newfound control of the series. Would they avoid the same fate the Mavs had, losing Game 3 to set up a must-win Game 4?

The first two games of the 2012 Finals have been characterized by incredible athleticism and defense on both sides, with Miami often starting better. In Game 1, Durant bested LeBron but in Game 2 it was LeBron who made the key plays, while also getting a much better game from Wade. Not only that, Game 2 was the first Thunder home loss all postseason long.

Westbrook’s play and his poor shooting in Game 2 has become a sore subject for the Thunder, according to Mike Breen, as Westbrook fails to make baskets on two early drives. It’s the continuation of a story that will eventually lead to Durant leaving for the Golden State Warriors four years later. Then Westbrook hits a fadeaway jumper over two guys. He’s not going to change. 

Harden, who was spectacular for OKC in Game 2, tries to hit a buzzer-beater but he doesn’t get the foul call and Miami goes into the 2nd quarter up 26-20, with a majority of their shots coming inside the paint. It was an unfortunate sign of things to come for Harden in the final games of this series, particularly this one, as he would finish 2 for 10 from the field with just 9 points. 

However, as the second quarter goes on, the Thunder are able to corral the action a little bit more into their control. Then Durant has a spinning turnaround over Wade and a stunting James to tie it at 31. And just when it looks like the Thunder will take the lead, a Chalmers steal leads to a wide open Heat lay-up to break a 4-minute drought. OKC takes a lead at 36-35 before a Wade reverse lay-up on a pass from James. But the great plays in this series rarely stop as Durant hits a dead eye 3-pointer right in LeBron’s face, an odd foreshadowing of the shot that would win the NBA Finals for the Golden State Warriors in consecutive years a few Finals later.

 

But Durant, not unlike LeBron in 2007, has a long way to go before he completes the full picture. Part of that is because LeBron has a lot more help at his disposal this year.

Enter Shane Battier once again, the lone free agent signing of note for Miami after the loss to Dallas, hitting a 3-pointer to tie the game at 41 off of the bullet skip pass from LeBron. Then he hits another a few possessions later. It’s no wonder Battier is probably going to be part of the Heat organization for life. But then Westbrook hits a tree to answer Batttier and make it 47-46. These games are thrilling for basically every second and frankly, I’m having more fun watching this series than the 2011 one, as great as Dallas played. First of all, LeBron is playing at a higher level and frankly, Durant and Westbrook are doing some amazing things almost every other play. Everyone talks about 2013 and 2011, but 2012 rarely gets talked about. I know that opinion isn’t very popular with basketball pundits, but the 2012 series really is underrated in terms of entertainment value and it really sucks we only got it one time.

Maybe we need to talk about this more and since LeBron and Durant don’t meet again until Durant is on the Warriors in 2017 and 2018, now is the right time. If OKC closes out the Warriors, maybe they get another classic series against LeBron and this time KD could be the undisputed winner for the franchise that drafted him rather than the mercenary piece to get the mighty Warriors over the top. Durant says he would have joined Golden State no matter what, but not even he can truly know how everything would feel if things had broke differently. We aren’t fortunate enough to live in that timeline. If Klay Thompson doesn’t catch on fire in Game 6 and if Durant and Westbrook don’t self-implode offensively in the final three games. But of course, that never happened and we can discuss why when we get to the 2016 Finals.

Back to 2012, the Thunder are up 56-51 and look to be in a decent position to at least guarantee one more game at the megachurch/arena in OKC. Another turnover by LeBron leads to a Durant dunk and it goes to 58-51. Then Durant again scores to make it 60-51. Ibaka and Durant combine for a block on Chalmers and now the PTSD from last year in Miami starts setting in.

The crowd is murmuring with worry until Mr. Heat himself, Wade, gets a steal and an easy dunk to slow the Thunder surge. Wade, a true craftsman of the grift, so much so that it earned him the 2006 Finals MVP, gets Durant to pick up his 4th foul with 5:41 left and the Thunder up by 6. Brooks doesn’t put enough faith in his young superstar to play without fouling. It’s easy to forget this was his first Finals too. Even after Durant played much of the 4th quarter of Game 2 with 5 fouls, Brooks elects to sit him for nearly six straight minutes of game action. With a cold Westbrook taking over the offense and Harden having a night he’d rather forget, Durant reluctantly puts on his shooting shirt. Somehow, it looks like Brooks is about to be saved as Derek Fisher somehow draws a foul on a 3-pointer and the 4-point play gives the Thunder a 64-54 lead. Thankfully for the Heat, the Fisher bailout would only be fool’s gold. 

A basket from LeBron, then Battier drawing a 3-point foul to cut the lead back to 6. The Heat are playing way off of Westbrook when Harden has the ball, hoping to turn him into jump-shooter and he obliges them. Then Fisher gives back the points he provided again by fouling James Jones on a corner 3-pointer right after Battier was fouled. And with two trips to the foul line, the Thunder lead is down from 9 to 3. A few plays later, LeBron hits a 3-pointer with a minute left as the Thunder close the 4th quarter with only Harden on the court as Miami finishes with LeBron and Wade. The result, after trailing by double-digits, is a 69-67 Miami lead with Harden and Westbrook watching the last three minutes and Durant almost the last six. For Thunder fans, that’s got to be one of the sequences they wish they could have back. Then Haslem swats a Derek Fisher drive into oblivion.

Also, did the “Ref You Suck Chant” start in 2012? It’s ubiquitous in NBA arenas now in 2020, but the curiosity Mike Breen of “another anti-ref chant,” makes it seem like the novelty had not yet worn off by these NBA Finals. Part of the reason the Heat fans are upset is OKC is back in the game. A rare good moment in this game for James Harden gives the Thunder their first 4th quarter lead. Fisher then took a pull-up 3 in transition, and was allowed to stay in the game, for reasons I don’t understand other than “he played with Kobe.”

A driving Wade lay-up off of a double-screen from James and Bosh gives him a 3-point play to give Miami an 81-77 lead with under five minutes left. Then a bad Harden pass leads to Heat possession. A few plays later, LeBron draws Durant’s 5th foul on a 3-point play as Durant is late to draw the charge. Miami’s up 84-77 and OKC calls time with 3:44 left. The Thunder will scrambled back, however, cutting the lead to 86-83 with under two minutes left as the Heat were far too loose with the ball. Then a Westbrook jumper makes it a 1-point game.

A couple of free-throws from Bosh makes it 88-85 with 1:19 left. The Heat are diligent in trying to double team Durant and while Durant gets a shot off, it’s not an easy one. About a minute elapses before LeBron splits a pair of free-throws, giving OKC the ball back with 13.9 seconds left down by 4. The Thunder’s rally ends with a whimper as Sefolosha throws the ball directly to Wade, effectively sealing the game.

For the second straight season, the Heat have a 2-1 series lead. But now the challenge will be not giving the lead back, which they did last year in Dallas.

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