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
LeBron James has gone four years since playing in the NBA Finals. Since the last game we watched, LeBron left Cleveland to join the Miami Heat. He then became one of the biggest pariahs in the sports world. Even after he eventually lost this NBA Finals series to the Mavericks, he was still one of the most disliked people in all of sports, due in large part to “The Decision” television show where he announced he would leave the Cavaliers to take his talents to South Beach, which also helped generate $250,000 for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
Also, as the diary writer, I need to contextualize where I am before we go further with this re-watch. This is really my first time watching the 2011 NBA Finals series in a coherent state of mind. I caught the tail end of Game 2, stumbling back to my room at 6:30 in the morning, living in Spain at the time and winding down the final few weeks of my study abroad. The ending of Game 2, despite the levels of intoxication to be up at 6:30 am from the previous night, is seared into my brain as one of the greatest in Finals history, which I’m thankful to have seen live. Shout out to First Row Sports dot EU. But aside from that great ending to Game 2, I know the 2011 Finals as more story than series.
So for more context of the LeBron Universe at the time, let’s go to one of the best in the game, Marc Spears of The Undefeated, to give more context to the world when LeBron was hated.
Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert wrote an angry open letter saying his franchise would win a championship before the “self-declared former King,” described him as selfish, heartless and callous, and called the move a “cowardly betrayal.” NBA commissioner David Stern would later fine Gilbert $100,000 for the letter. The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Gilbert’s email “personified a slave master’s mentality.”
The Q Scores Company listed James as the sixth-most disliked sports personality behind, coincidentally, fellow African-American athletes Michael Vick, Tiger Woods, Terrell Owens, Chad Ochocinco and Kobe Bryant. Forbes.com listed James second in an article on the Most Disliked NBA Players on Dec. 21, 2011. Topping the list was New Jersey Nets forward Kris Humphries, who divorced Kim Kardashian after 72 days of marriage.
The Heat started Game 1 with the exact kind of play that I had wanted to see from the Cavaliers in 2007 and we did, but only in Game 4 when it was too late. Erik Spoelstra gets LeBron the move to go into a post-up catch rather than just camping him out on the left block.
Jeff Van Gundy begins the broadcast by defending LeBron’s bad crunch time shooting numbers, saying that everyone’s numbers are down but Breen chimes in “now he’s on the Miami Heat.” LeBron isn’t just a player on a great team, he’s a Heatle. We are in the first swing of Heatle Mania.
Early in the series, that mania seems to be driving him. LeBron gets a steal, gives it up and gets it back to put the Heat up 10-5. LeBron is doing great things in the open court, but can the Heat keep forcing live-ball turnovers like this?
James hits a corner 3-pointer, which he hit at a good rate of 35.3 percent. The 2011 postseason remains his 4th best postseason percentage mark from the 3-point line. Also, a note about the spacing here compared to the last series. Both teams have four guys out on the 3-point line. Also, there’s actually a back-and-forth to pay attention to, unlike 2007.
LeBron seems to have learned from his last anonymous Game 1 in the Finals. He already has 10 points and he’s being much more aggressive than he was during his first Finals game at 22 years old. But Dirk is here for Finals redemption too. He has 13 points after a banker over a double-team. A dunk by Chandler makes it 38-35 Mavs. A Shawn Marion offensive rebound leads to a 3-pointer for Jason Terry, but Chalmers answers and it’s 44-43 Mavs at halftime.
A Dirk jumper gets him to 15 points and gives the Mavs a 48-43 lead, their largest of the game. A Stevenson 3-pointer makes it 51-43 and the Heat call time. Mike Breen is extolling the virtues of the Mavs veterans at the moment and it almost sounds like he could be talking about the 2019 Toronto Raptors. There are former MVPs in Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd, former All-NBA guys like Marion and Peja Stojakovic. They’ve basically stacked the squad with all of the best players in the league that had still yet to win a title, other than LeBron James, of course.
A James 3-pointer off of a Mike Bibby assist (he did something!) gets the crowd back in it. The Heat defense has also picked up considerably. They put Haslem in and now they are swarming everything. Goddamn, Chris Bosh was good as hell. When Dirk gets it, Haslem and Bosh swarm him and the Heat guards are struggling to get by against Wade, Chalmers and James on the perimeter. The eight point lead Mavs lead is down to 2. Even a rare Peja Stojakovic wide open look doesn’t go. And now a Haslem lay-up on a dish from LeBron ties the game at 57. Another Mavs turnover. The Heat’s supercharged swarming defense has the veteran Mavs completely bamboozled. James then makes the Mavs pay for letting him step into a 3-pointer. This Game 1 could not be any more different for LeBron than Game 1 of 2007. Then he ends the quarter with a fadeaway 3-pointer. LeBron is full Mamba in this one.
Another thing about the Heat of those days that I think we forget is the way they were able to stay big while still creating space. They get credit for “small ball” but they weren’t really that small. Chris Bosh was just skilled enough to create that space while being a center on the other end. On cue, Bosh finds Haslem on a high-low set for an and-1 to give the Heat their biggest lead at 6. Don’t buy that the big man is dead, even in 2020.
Dwyane Wade blocks Marion a play later and the Heat still leads 79-73. Wade hits a very rare triple to make the Heat lead 9. He’s been the 4th quarter guy while LeBron led the way for the first 3.
On the next Heat possession, James puts an exclamation point on the night. There’s 3-minutes left, but it’s over as the Mavs are unable to get the big momentum shots they need. Dallas doesn’t give in or pull the starters and even go to a full-court press, but they were unable to overcome a great game from LeBron and a finishing flurry from Wade. Just in case they weren’t knocked out, the Heat went for one more knockout blow with a Wade-to-James oop.
After going 4 for 16 in his first Game 1 over four years ago, LeBron ends this one with 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists on 9 of 16 shooting in 45 minutes, including 4 of 5 from the 3-point line. Now he has his first Finals win. But he’s about to get a lesson that winning Game 1 is one of four steps to get to an NBA title. See you tomorrow for Game 2.
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