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.

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.

Durant, who has been the most consistent player for the Thunder all series, makes an early turnover, leading to a LeBron James slam dunk to begin the game. Then OKC throws it to Kendrick Perkins in the post against LeBron and goes very awry. But the nerves continue to mount in the game and both teams go scoreless until Westbrook hits a free-throw line jumper. But it would be a tease of a shot for Westbrook, as he would be unable to recreate the magic he had in Game 4, when he scored 43 points and 17 points in the 4th quarter to nearly even the series. He hits Ibaka for a dunk early on and he may be the only player between both teams not affected by the nerves of the elimination game to start.

LeBron is being shown addressing the debilitating cramps that he suffered in the final moments of Game 4. He said he was dehydrated. Cramping will, unfortunately, become a bigger part of LeBron’s Finals story as we move along his Finals career. Meanwhile, the Heat have settled in offensively and now have a 20-14 lead with 4:12 left in the first. Bosh is also exploiting a quickness advantage against Perkins that has been there the whole series but hasn’t been the focal point of the Heat attack. He screens for LeBron and as Perkins tries to close out to Bosh, who blows by him again. In the closeout game, the Big 3 is showing up.

OKC comes out of a timeout following the Bosh bucket and get the ball to Harden, who has been mostly anonymous in this series save for a great Game 2. But Harden’s brief sign of life isn’t enough to stop the clearly better team, as Mike Miller makes his first 3-pointer of the series as his playing time has been inconsistent all series long. After a Chalmers turnover, the Heat get another stop and it’s Miller Time again, this time on a pass from LeBron. Miller had some big moments in the 2011 Finals, but this Heat team hasn’t had to count on him as much with the addition of Battier. He’s been struggling with injuries all playoff long and his back is limiting him, but Miller is providing the extra punch off the bench championship teams often need. 

However, Durant has a driving dunk and the Thunder aren’t getting blown because he has nine points. Still, with Miami’s role players connecting from 3 and the Thunder seemingly struggling all series to find consistent role player contributions, the Thunder will need more than just Durant to pull out the win. Westbrook gets to a lay-up off of an aggressive cut and the lead is down to 31-29 early in the 2nd quarter. And then Harden gets a wide-open 3-pointer, but it goes halfway down and pops out. While Miami’s Big 3 is delivering, the Big 3 for OKC just can’t put it all together. There is likely no better representation of the series that he’s had than that wide-open jumper that didn’t go in. Then LeBron absolutely destroys Harden in the post with a spin move, before finishing over Kendrick Perkins to make it 43-36. Harden is actually not a bad post defender, but posting against LeBron is a different story, especially in 2012. And then Bosh stuffs a Kendrick Perkins dunk, as the wheels are coming off of Perkins and the Thunder a little bit.

Now it’s 48-36 and Bosh has 10 points, three blocks and the Big 3 are putting together the finishing touches while the Thunder are a mess. Now Westbrook gets called for an offensive foul as Battier again continues to be everything the Heat didn’t have against the Mavs last year. Meanwhile, Miller can’t miss as he hits another three, his 4th of the first half. Then LeBron gets a fast break lay-up on a steal because the Thunder can’t hold onto the ball. But they manage to keep the Heat lead down to 10.

Durant opens the second half with a 3-pointer to cut the Heat lead to seven, as the championship won’t come easy as the lead is now seven. Then five, then Durant blocks LeBron from behind, could they get the series back to Oklahoma? Wade steals the ball from Durant in transition before we get that far and then Chalmers hits a corner 3-pointer, the 8th of the game for Miami. Then LeBron hits Battier in the corner for their 9th. Then another Battier triple comes in with under 7 minutes left, their 10th of the game. One year after hitting 45 3-pointers over six games against the Mavericks, the Heat his 42 3-pointers over five games and Game 5 was their second game in a row hitting double-digit 3-pointers, something they only did once in the 2011 Finals. It took them a year, but the Heat have finally found the formula of LeBron + Wade + Bosh + shooters, with Battier, Miller, Chalmers, and Cole alternating in that role. The Heat are looking like champions and the Thunder are increasingly desperate.

Then Derek Fisher is called for a Flagrant 1 after hitting LeBron on the drive like a defensive end trying to blow up a pulling guard on a counter play in football. Chris Bosh wants a flagrant, Van Gundy, of course, does not, but the call goes to the Heat. LeBron makes both free-throws and then Wade is fouled on the next Heat possession, with Miami now up by 17, then a LeBron lay-up pushes it to 19, the biggest lead of the game. Then Bosh hits a triple. Then LeBron swats a Westbrook lay-up, which ends in OKC’s hands, but then ends with an offensive foul on Serge Ibaka for shoving Bosh. The Thunder have gone scoreless for almost five minutes, then Mike Miller hits his FIFTH 3-pointer. This game is as good as over. The championship feelings are starting to be felt and it does start to look like Kevin Durant is alone out there. They are now jacking up desperate 3s to try and close the gap, which is at 25.

As the 4th quarter begins, Mike Miller hits back-to-back 3-pointers on passes from LeBron to give him seven 3-pointers and giving Miami 14, tying an NBA Finals record. From here, the Heat are coasting, as LeBron James records what will be the first of his Finals closeout triple-doubles, finishing with 26 points, 13 assists, and 11 rebounds. One year after Jason Terry and the Mavericks engulfed the Heat in flames on their homecourt, the Heat have risen from the ashes to vanquish the Thunder in a similar fashion as LeBron too has elevated his game, allowing Wade and Bosh to excel their roles as well. Durant has been subbed out, now Westbrook has as well and Harden hits a contested three when it doesn’t matter at all in the last game they will ever play together.

“It’s about damn time,” LeBron would say on the championship podium after checking out from the game with 3:01 left alongside Bosh and Wade. After he gets to the bench, LeBron goes immediately to carefully hug Miller, whose hot shooting night helped seal his first ring, even while he struggled to get up and down the court.

A year has passed and LeBron had to get over his worst Finals performance, then the NBA lockout, then Wade’s health throughout the compressed 66-game season, then Bosh’s playoff injury, but he finally got the first ring. It wasn’t a weird thought at the time to think we’d see this match-up again next season. While Durant and James would meet in the Finals again five years later, the Heat and Thunder never became the Finals rivals they looked so posed to be.

With Doris Burke, LeBron was understandably emotional when she asks what he feels now after the two years that he’s had of being America’s most hated athlete after being one of its most beloved.

“It means everything,” LeBron told Burke. “I made a difficult decision to leave Cleveland but I understood what my future was about. I knew that coming to Miami and being a part of this organization and being a part of this team, I knew we had a bright future. This is a dream come true for me. I’ve been through a lot the last two years, but this is how it pays off.”

“Losing in the Finals put me back in place. It humbled me a lot. And I was able to go back to the basics. A lot of people had a lot to do with it but at the end of the day, I looked in the mirror and said ‘I need to be better. On and off the floor. And I’m glad I was able to put our team in a position to win this.”

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