Last year Miami often struggled in the 4th quarter of games, and Lebron tended to disappear. And this year? Same story. Through 11 games so far the Heat have scored 95 more points than their opponents. But in the 4th quarter and overtime, the Heat have been outscored by 28 points. They have lost 3 games this season: On Jan. 2 at home vs Atlanta, Miami led 71-67 through 3 quarters, but ended up losing 100-92. On Tuesday at Golden State they blew a 17 point lead before losing in overtime. And in L.A. on Wednesday, the Heat went over 11 minutes without a field goal down the stretch in their loss to the Clippers. Even when Miami beat Boston at home back on Dec. 27, they still let a 20 point lead dwindle down to 3 before hanging on for the victory. It’s the same pattern we saw all last season; the Heat can run up and down and blow people off the floor for 3 quarters. But in the final minutes the game slows down, and their offense has no idea what to do.
And how about Lebron? Late Wednesday night the biggest trending topic on twitter was #MoreClutchThanLebron. In the loss to the Warriors he took zero shots and scored exactly 1 point in the 4th quarter. Against the Clippers, during the 4th and OT combined he shot just 1-6 from the field, and only 6-10 from the free throw line. After his epic failure in the Finals last season, Lebron is continuing to show that he is not the guy you want with the game on the line.
At this point, nothing Miami does the rest of the regular season will impress me. I don’t care if they end up 63-3. I don’t care if Lebron averages 50-15-15 a night. Unless the Heat win the title and Lebron is the BEST player in the series, he’s underachieving.
On a totally unrelated note, Rihanna was at the Clippers game Wednesday night. Uh oh Lakers. The Clip-show is taking over.
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About Mark Vandeusen