LeBron James left his humble abode of Cleveland for the glitz and glamour of Miami for a reason and it sure wasn’t to pad his stats some more.
When Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined together in Miami, they each knew what they were sacrificing in return for an easier chance at a championship. Bosh was sacrificing a lead role on the Toronto Raptors, as well as the love and admiration of Canada, Wade was giving up the main spotlight in the city that he had been the star of since being drafted in 2003 and James was giving up another possible championship run with Cleveland as well as a chance of obtaining his third consecutive MVP award.
Or was he? Surely on a team where he’d be sharing the spotlight with the likes of Wade and Bosh would hamper his chances of performing a feat that only Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Larry Bird had done before. James knew when he joined Miami that another MVP award, as well as the admiration of the city of Cleveland, would most likely be lost or at least put on hold for this season. The 2010-11 campaign was meant to be a year of a brand new Heat team trying to find its identity while also attempting to win a championship.
Now approaching four months into the season and the Miami Heat are a disappointment to their critics, but right about where they want to be from a team standpoint. Each player on the team knew that immediate success would be difficult and they were right, as they started off 9-8 and struggled against the elite teams of the league that they were supposed to be competing with. As the season went on and they reeled off 20 wins in 21 games over a five week stretch, the team began to find its identity as they beat up on the sub-par and average teams and held their own against the competitive teams.
Over the past week however, the Heat has had some trouble finding wins as they have been without either James, Wade or Bosh in each of the last four games. It couldn’t have come at a worse time either as they were in the middle of a five game road trip that still have games against Denver and Chicago before coming home to take on Atlanta in the span of five days. They lost all three of those games before finally ending their season long four game losing streak with a 120-103 win over Toronto.
The lone win over the past week was a game where neither Chris Bosh or Dwayne Wade played, but a lineup that was bringing memories of Cleveland back. However, LeBron got a little more help than he expected as Mike Miller dropped 32 among three other players who also scored in double figures to lead the Heat to a much needed victory. That game among the past four have made a sudden realization of the Heat’s depth problems, as well as just how vital LeBron James is to this Heat team.
One of the positives of a LeBron James-led team is that he is one of the better players in this league at making his teammates better. The Heat didn’t convert 16 three-pointers last night just because Toronto is an awful defensive team, but mostly because James knows how to involve his teammates, as he can make them thrive off of his game while also finding them with his superb court vision. At seven assists per game, James is leading the team in assists as well as in points at 26.
At 26 points, seven rebounds and seven assists per game, LeBron’s stats have suffered since joining Miami, but the regular season success is still there with his team currently standing at 31-13 and first in the Southeast Division. As much as some of the NBA community wanted to see the Heat break the 72-10 record, it became highly unlikely when Mike Miller went down with a preseason injury and then followed that up with a Udonis Haslem injury near the end of November.
Nevertheless, Wade, James and Bosh have picked up the pieces to lead the team. Wade may be the emotional and fourth quarter leader of the team, but it has been James who has been the statistical leader thus far. He has been the player making his teammates better and the player that has sometimes taken the reins from Wade late in games as he hits big shot after big shot to lead his team to victories that they probably shouldn’t have had.
Amidst all the talk of James giving up stats for a title run in Miami, what exactly is holding LeBron back from winning his third consecutive MVP? The prestigious award is usually given out to the player on the best team and it has been a two man race to the MVP from the Heat as Wade and James continue to go at it for the role as leader on this Miami team.
In an article I posted last week, I had Wade as the clear cut MVP thanks in part to his late-game heroics, but James is easily making a case as his presence becomes missed when not on the floor as seen in the two games that he has missed over the past week.
It’ll be extremely tough for LeBron to win it, however, considering he already has to compete with Wade on his own team as well as Derrick Rose in Chicago, Kevin Durant in Oklahoma City and Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas just to throw out a few names. Each player has played spectacular this year, but with the Heat’s chemistry and experience continuing to grow, Wade and James have the ball in their court when it comes to winning a championship as well as one of them winning an MVP award.
James has certainly had the stats to back up the Heat’s 31-13 record and he is once again proving to be an MVP candidate. However, with the emergence of young players such as Rose and Durant being in heavy contention, it’s going to be more difficult than in the past two seasons for James to secure another MVP award. If his Miami team returns to the consistency it had in December and early January and secure a record that is either at the top or near it, James could find himself competing for an MVP as well as a championship.
LeBron has proved his value once again with the Heat over the past week and his presence is one of the most valuable assets this team can have over the league. While the 31-13 start isn’t exactly what most people envisioned, the team has come a long way from being three individuals competing against each other for a title rather than the trio they are together. James and Wade have had championship on their mind since the start of the season and the MVP race might catch up on them when they don’t expect it.