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 Finals Game Diaries
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.
Game 3, 2012 NBA Finals: Miami escapes a late Durant rally to go up 2-1.
Game 4, 2012 NBA Finals: LeBron fights through cramps and an epic Westbrook performance to take 3-1 lead.
Game 5, 2012 NBA Finals:’ It’s about damn time’
Game 1, 2013 NBA Finals: Tony Parker hits a clutch shot as Heat crumble with turnovers
Game 2, 2013 NBA Finals: LeBron stones Splitter and gets his first Finals win over the Spurs
Game 3, 2013 NBA Finals: Spurs return the favor with 3-point barrage
Obviously, folks, there has been a lot that’s happened since we were doing the re-watch diary about two weeks ago, George Floyd was killed in police custody and, following the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor earlier this year, as well as over 400 years of racial injustice in the United States, social unrest followed throughout the country in recent days. I feel it’s fair to admit that all of this didn’t make it all that enticing to watch and analyze a basketball game from seven years ago. I’m sure several other people were also not in the mood for such things they normally like to do. Plus with LeBron James being so vocal about the movement and the racial injustices of the nation, it felt more important to highlight those, which will still continue whenever basketball does return.
With the drama of the highest stakes playing out on a national scale minute by minute, on top of a global pandemic, basketball didn’t matter. And while protests are still going, even as I sit here to watch this game, I have found the capacity to care about the game again. Because two paths are something that we must walk, or at least that I must walk, now that basketball is on the horizon again. The option to just pay attention to one or the other doesn’t exist. At least not for me. Most likely, not for you either. So, while LeBron James will continue to speak out on issues of institutional racism and police brutality, which we have and will continue to chronicle on this website, I wanted to continue this classic series. But I also find it poignant that at this time, we are seeing LeBron James, only a year removed from using his platform to speak out against the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, facing off against Gregg Popovich, the most outspoken white coach on the issues of race we have in the NBA. Perhaps the most outspoken white coach ever in the league’s history with regards to racial issues. So with that, we go to Game 4, as LeBron and the Heat were buried under a barrage of 3-pointers in Game 3 to fall 2-1. What follows is what I believe is a forgotten classic of the Big 3 Era.
If you recall from the last game, the strategy from the Spurs has been to encourage LeBron to take midrange jump shots. LeBron is smartly trying to counter, using his speed, size, and passing, to create high-value 3-pointers for the various Heat shooters. But at some point, LeBron has to take the game into his own hands. He did it in the 4th quarter of Game 2, but we have truly still been waiting for James to deliver the scoring performance the Heat need. Or at least anyone for that matter. Bosh and Wade have provided solid scoring, but nobody on the Heat has eclipsed the 20-point mark in a game, let alone 30. If the Heat are going to get back into the series, this absolutely has to change because as much as basketball is a team game, the NBA is won when players break the most well-thought-out schemes.
One guy who has not had any trouble scoring is Danny Green, who hits an early 3-pointer. The Heat have gone to a small line-up, inserting the red-hot Mike Miller into the line-up, with Chris Bosh as the center and LeBron at power forward. LeBron gets an early steal and a foul in transition. Meanwhile, early foul trouble from Tiago Splitter has brought Gary Neal in for some very early action, matching Miami’s small-ball look. So far, the small ball move isn’t turning out for the Heat as they trail early 12-5. A Kawhi Leonard 3-pointer forces a timeout at 15-5. Out of the timeout, Spoelstra puts Norris Cole into the game to replace Mario Chalmers, who hasn’t been the same since Game 2. Cole’s energy on both ends has helped the Heat, with him driving the ball down the court and handing it off to James for a powerful layup. Then Wade comes through with another basket and it’s 17-11, a little bit better, with the two Heat stars asserting themselves at the same time in a way they have yet to do in the series. But can they keep it up?
As far as LeBron is concerned, one thing he has done much more in this first quarter is take advantage of the Spurs in semi-transition. Anytime the Heat have an opportunity to get in the open court after a turnover or a miss, they get out and run and LeBron, rather than being unsure of what to do is going in with full power that the Spurs cannot stop when they are on their heels. Let alone tiny Cory Joseph, LeBron’s latest victim in transition. The Spurs lead, which was at 10, has been erased now. And then LeBron takes a midrange shot, the one the Spurs have been asking him to take. Then he makes another. In the rhythm after making a few layups, he has 11 points, his highest scoring 1st quarter of the whole Finals so far.
Meanwhile, Dwyane Wade has been a steals machine and has created a great deal of the offensive opportunities that LeBron is finishing. As it happens so often in basketball and in life, one does not happen without the other and Wade’s play has been as instrumental as LeBron’s has been to him. But the fact that they are doing it at the same time is what is most important. The 1-2 punch, hell even a true punch from a star player, had yet to land on the Spurs through three games. To advance, the Heat needed more than 3-pointers from their role players. This is a star, virtuoso performance led by the giants but also capped off by a couple of All-Stars playing as role guys.
Game 4 of 2013 may not be remembered in the same way as the iconic Game 5 of the 2016 Finals when LeBron and Kyrie Irving both went for over 40, but the effect it had on this series may have been just as important due to the 2-3-2 format of the Finals back in 2013. With the Spurs already winning one on Miami’s home floor, the onus was on the Heat to get at least one in San Antonio. Thanks to their star players and their excellent defense, they are getting the type of game they desperately need. As far as games of the Heat era, this one ranks as a forgotten classic. Also, Game 4 is usually a great game. Shout out to all my Game 4 fans out there. The Heat have their lead up to double-digits, but the Spurs won’t let this game get completely out of hand.
A Parker drive and assist to Kawhi Leonard forces a Spoelstra timeout, with it at 41-36. Also of note, the Heat have stuck with small ball for the entire first half. Chris Andersen is nowhere to be found in the first half, but Shame Battier is getting the most run he’s seen all series. Getting him into the mix would prove to be the right call, only the payoff wouldn’t come until much later on. But the Spurs, as they have done basically all series, are closing the quarter with purpose. They’ve cut Miami’s lead to 47-45 with less than a minute to go in the half. A Boris Diaw lay-up in transition ties the game at 49 with 10.1 seconds to go, forcing another Heat timeout. Then Kawhi Leonard makes a foul to give on LeBron, which confuses Jeff Van Gundy, but the Heat come out empty-handed anyway,
LeBron has 15 first-half points, nearly matching his previous series-high mark of 17 in Game 2. Also, Wade has 14 points. On the other side, the engine for the Spurs Tony Parker, bad hamstring and all, has 15 points in the first half as well. To start the second half, Popovich makes a change again, putting Boris Diaw into the starting lineup for the second half. The game remains in a nip-and-tuck rhythm for the first few minutes of the third quarter, with neither team getting a lead of more than a basket. Meanwhile, Erik Spoelstra is keeping Wade in the game with a 4th foul. But a LeBron midrange jumper, the exact thing the Spurs were hoping would work for them, forces Pop into a timeout with 6:43 left and the Heat up only by 2. Pop’s basketball sense is kicking in and he knows that this LeBron needs to be slowed down in a way outside of the baseline strategy that has slowed him and Wade down in Games 1 through 3. The Spurs wall has been breached.
Danny Green comes through with a 3-pointer, but the good news for the Heat is its been a rare one, only his 2nd. But a Ray Allen bucket, a 3-pointer from Chalmers, and then a layup by LeBron brings the Heat back to a 6-point lead. The assertiveness, from LeBron, Wade, and even a little bit of driving from an aged Allen of all people is giving the Heat extra juice. A sweet lay-up by Kawhi Leonard while fouled by Bosh brings a little life back into the crowd.
Also, it should be said that in addition to the scoring, LeBron has been playing excellent defense as the power forward. He’s protected the rim, battled Duncan and Splitter in the post, and mostly done all that has been asked as him. It may not be Magic Johnson in 1980, but damn, it’s impressive. If Giannis wins the 2020 title, it will probably look a lot like this.
A 3-pointer by Gary Neal gets the Spurs crowd in it again as the Heat lead goes back down to just 3, but Wade brings the counter punch. In soccer, they refer to the two-man game as, “combination play,” which is what I prefer to call the play of Wade and LeBron exhibited in Game 4. It was a dominant performance that we don’t often see from two players on the same team in an NBA Finals, seemingly dominating from opposite sides of the court at the same time. On cue, Wade grabs an offensive rebound over Ginobili, then LeBron catches another Heat miss and the Heat go up. LeBron and Wade doing some heavyweight stuff in this. It’s probably because of Ray Allen’s shot that we don’t remember this at all, but we should.
Early in the 4th, LeBron rips Splitter and leads the break, which leads to a Ray Allen 3. Gary Neal, however, is going to keep the Spurs alive for a little while longer. With 9:34 left, LeBron takes a brief rest. At around the 8-minute mark, Wade comes up with another steal and he ends with a dunk, much to LeBron’s joy on the bench. Then Wade hits another jumper to give him 30 points, to go along with six steals. If it isn’t the same as Kyrie and LeBron’s legendary 2016 Game 5, it sure feels like a prelude. Now I’m starting to imagine the damage LeBron and Anthony Davis can inflict together once the playoffs arrive. And let’s not forget Chris Bosh while we’re at it, who has an 18-10 double-double at this point, as well as two blocks and just dove on the floor for a steal. The Heat are up 96-85 and Spoelstra wants to give his team a breather with a timeout.
After the timeout and with LeBron back in the game, the lead goes up to as much as 100-85. Another jumper for LeBron, he made 7 midrange jumpers on the game out nine attempts. The efficiency of LeBron (33 points, 11 rebounds, four assists), the ferocity of Wade (30 points, six steals, six rebounds, four assists) and the calming hand of Chris Bosh (20 points, 13 rebounds), and an unexpected miss of drives and 3’s from Ray Allen (14 points) sealed a win and a 2-2 series tie. The Spurs have emptied the bench with four minutes left. As I’ve mentioned many times already, this game should be higher up on the list of classics from the Miami Heat’s Big 3 Era, and in the list of All-Time great games from LeBron. I highly recommend finding it on YouTube if you have the interest.
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