As Heat lose, James, Wade fall apart by the best NBA guy in the biz...

[mavs777]

really becoming a fan of Adrian Wojnarowski.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slu...atissues030611

For all the flexing and preening, the third-person proclamations and South Beach parties, LeBron James(notes) finally delivered these Miami Heat something pure and authentic in the privacy of the locker room: Full of emotion, he apologized for his big-shot, big-games failures and promised redemption.

“I told my team I’m not going to continue to fail them late in games,” James told reporters in Miami. “I put a lot of the blame on myself.”

James has used the words “fail” and “blame” a lot of times, but seldom in context of his own performances. His idea of accountability has always been his cronies and him nudging you in the direction of the guilty parties – his coach, GM, teammates – but never the global icon in the mirror.

LeBron didn’t promise to do different.

LeBron promised to do better.

He didn’t go to Miami to construct a partnership, as much as he did gather superior sidekicks. He’s going to keep trying because the solution will never be to bend to the I-told-you-sos that insist Wade’s the closer on this Heat team. The Heat have two of the best five players in the world, and they still can’t play together when it matters most. Derrick Rose(notes) never wanted to play with James, but he welcomed the idea of Wade as his shooting guard. Wade must have some regret that he hadn’t gone home to Chicago in free agency and spared himself this most unhappy ever-after with the Heat.

It’s March, the playoffs aren’t that far away, and the Heat are still regressing. New York survives two shots out of James in the final seconds. Orlando makes a wild comeback to beat them. San Antonio blows them out. Chicago makes James miss a wild, driving shot in the final seconds. Four straight losses, and the gulf between James and Wade widens with every embarrassment.

“I’m used to coming down in the fourth, having the ball, making mistakes, getting a chance to make up for them, etc., “ Wade told reporters Sunday. “You try to do your best. That’s all you can do. That was one of the things we got to understand when we all decided to come together. That there were going to be sacrifices that have to be made. And you live with the consequences.”

Yes, you live with the consequences. Wade has started to say publicly what he’s been saying privately for a long time: Why don’t I get the ball when it matters? Miami’s no longer his town, and the Heat no longer his team. Didn’t you hear James? It isn’t our team. It isn’t D-Wade’s team.

My team.

When people warned Wade about letting LeBron into his life, they wanted him to think about how he’d handle James making all the big shots, becoming the biggest star on South Beach. They never considered the possibility of what it would feel like for Wade to watch James fail over and over.

So, Wade played the victim act and reminded everyone that he never, ever wanted to join James on his Hate Me Across America Tour. “The Miami Heat are doing exactly what everyone wanted, losing games,” Wade said. “The world is better now because the Heat is losing.”

Wade is angling for sympathy, but it doesn’t exist for him, nor these Heat. And James does nothing to ever make it easier. Before Miami embarked on this telltale stretch against contenders, James tweeted: “No friends when at WAR beside my brothers.”

These aren’t his brothers, and this is no war. The Heat trained on a military base, James signed some autographs for soldiers and he likes saluting teammates on the court. In his mind, it’s a little like storming the beaches of Normandy. Yet that’s LeBron James, and that’ll always be him. Dwyane Wade(notes) can pout and play the victim and grow sharper in his rebukes of a Miami system that is slowly, surely turning him into Pippen-Lite. He shouldn’t be so despondent. After all, LeBron James tried to make himself accountable for his late-game failures. That’s progress for him. That’s historic.

He isn’t blaming his teammates.

Not yet, anyway.

Maybe James is fighting some war, but Wade lost his own when he let LeBron into his life. He was warned. He didn’t listen. Now, he ought to take his own advice and “live with the consequences.” Mostly, he should stop feeling sorry for himself. LeBron James apologized to his team on Sunday, not Dwyane Wade’s

[chumdawg]

What a maudlin column. Gimme a break.

Wade as "Pippen-lite?" That is so wrong, on so many levels, that it hardly deserves the effort it takes to laugh at it.

If you're the kind of person who wants to laugh (and I don't understand why you would be that person), laugh now. You won't be laughing long. These guys are good.

[mavs777]

The only thing Wade does better than Pippen is score

[Kidd Karma]

One of the interesting things I was keeping track of yesterday was getting buckets after timeouts, I think Miami had 6 TO's and scored all 6 times, but the final one, the big one, couldn't get it done. Spoelstra's diagramming plays that work, just not making the right call at end game, I mean let James drive it immediately, then draw defenders, lineup players for open jump shots. Bosh, Wade, Miller/House/Jones/Bibby. Once Noah switched, James has to know there's a mismatch with Bosh.

[Underdog]

Originally Posted by mavs777

The only thing Wade does better than Pippen is score

And flop.

[She_Growls]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

What a maudlin column. Gimme a break.

Wade as "Pippen-lite?" That is so wrong, on so many levels, that it hardly deserves the effort it takes to laugh at it.

If you're the kind of person who wants to laugh (and I don't understand why you would be that person), laugh now. You won't be laughing long. These guys are good.

Hmmm, I detect bitterness in your some of your recent posts. Perhaps you're a cHeats fan? That's cool. But it's not that serious dude; laughter is good for the soul, give it a try

In the mean time, I'll keep laughing at the cHeats and their creation...

[jthig32]

This is going to be the ultimate test of the scoring differential debate. And by debate, I don't mean whether differential matters. It clearly does. Cuban and a Celtics exec both very casually mentioned that scoring differential is one of the key metrics they follow during the Sloan conference this weekend.

However, Hollinger will tell you that the Heat's record against winning teams and in close games doesn't matter at all. But at some point, doesn't it have to matter a little? If you consistently, over and over again, destroy bad teams and lose to good teams, doesn't that matter?

I guess we'll see. I like Wojo, but he's had a real public issue with Lebron for a long time, and while I agree with some of the sentiments of the article, he's going to far to fast on Lebron, as usual.

I do wholeheartedly agree that the Heat would be a much better team if they would let Wade have the ball late in games. Lebron just does not have a refined enough offensive game to execute consistently in those situations.

[dude1394]

Originally Posted by Underdog

And flop.

That's for sure...I'm not sure there's any better there except possibly manu. And even manu doesn't feel nearly as priviledged.

[dude1394]

Originally Posted by jthig32

This is going to be the ultimate test of the scoring differential debate. And by debate, I don't mean whether differential matters. It clearly does. Cuban and a Celtics exec both very casually mentioned that scoring differential is one of the key metrics they follow during the Sloan conference this weekend.

However, Hollinger will tell you that the Heat's record against winning teams and in close games doesn't matter at all. But at some point, doesn't it have to matter a little? If you consistently, over and over again, destroy bad teams and lose to good teams, doesn't that matter?

I guess we'll see. I like Wojo, but he's had a real public issue with Lebron for a long time, and while I agree with some of the sentiments of the article, he's going to far to fast on Lebron, as usual.

I do wholeheartedly agree that the Heat would be a much better team if they would let Wade have the ball late in games. Lebron just does not have a refined enough offensive game to execute consistently in those situations.

What does hollinger say about all of those phoenix teams that were blowing people out of the water? Why weren't they always in the finals. There has to be some rationality put on numbers.

[mavs777]

Originally Posted by dude1394

That's for sure...I'm not sure there's any better there except possibly manu. And even manu doesn't feel nearly as priviledged.

Horry was the best

[LonghornDub]

Over-the-top column, but I don't doubt it's a bit awkward in Miami right now. Wade's been the closer in Miami for years, won a title as the closer, and now LeBron has come in and is "closing" games by missing layups and bricking wide open threes.

Awkward.

But they'll be a force in the playoffs. I sure wouldn't want to play them.

[CadBane]

Gotta love WoJo. He gets off on trolling LBJ, and it's pretty hilarious.

[ribosoma]

One of the things that has always puzzled me about Lebron is that you seldom see him use ball-fakes, head-fakes, or shoulder-fakes late in games. It seems like he strictly relies on his athleticism to get the last shot. One of the things that makes great closers like Kobe and Dirk so nasty is their intelligence, which I don't see too much of in Bron-Bron's game. With his star treatment, if he added a bit more deception to his game in the final seconds, as well as a floater or a flip shot, he would be completely unstoppable. I think this is why I would lean on Wade to close games out. He knows that he is going to get the call and he knows how to get it.

BTW, thanks for posting the article. Lebron is like a corporate entity now. You seldom see him get called out unless it's after the fact like the stories of just how extreme his demands were in Cleveland.

[Murphy3]

I usually don't wish for compound fractures..but if Lebron had about 4 compound leg fractures, I wouldn't be upset.

[kg_veteran]

The Heat should be giving Wade the ball at the end of games. He's a better shot-maker than LeBron James is. That said, Wojnarowski is a stooge. He is becoming the modern version of Vecsey, and he lets his disdain for LeBron James ooze out of just about every column he writes.

FWIW, I think it's okay to disdain LeBron James (I do), but I don't think it's okay to write as if he has some inside knowledge of the situation when it's clear that he's talking out of his rear-end.

[MavsPower]

When you have Andre Miller constantly getting wide open layups in the 4th quarter you know you play no defense at all

[EricaLubarsky]

0-5

oh yeah

[dude1394]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

I usually don't wish for compound fractures..but if Lebron had about 4 compound leg fractures, I wouldn't be upset.

Only 2, save two for diva.

[dude1394]

Originally Posted by kg_veteran

The Heat should be giving Wade the ball at the end of games. He's a better shot-maker than LeBron James is. That said, Wojnarowski is a stooge. He is becoming the modern version of Vecsey, and he lets his disdain for LeBron James ooze out of just about every column he writes.

FWIW, I think it's okay to disdain LeBron James (I do), but I don't think it's okay to write as if he has some inside knowledge of the situation when it's clear that he's talking out of his rear-end.

Built up by the media, skewered by the media.

Couldn't happen to nicer "pre-paraders".

[chumdawg]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

I usually don't wish for compound fractures..but if Lebron had about 4 compound leg fractures, I wouldn't be upset.

What did he do to deserve that?

[sefant77]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTQdcA_VeRw