LeBron James is well on his way to his goal. After “taking my talents to South Beach,” James has been absolutely instrumental in the Miami Heat’s destruction of the Boston Celtics. Now it’s off to the Eastern Conference final and it’s very likely the Heat will win that one, too.
On Wednesday night, James scored 10 points down the stretch as Miami finished up on a 16-0 run to come back from an 87-81 deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Celtics 97-87 and eliminate Boston from the Eastern Conference semifinal in five games. In the end, it was a whuppin’.
Dwyane Wade had 34 points and 10 rebounds, James had 33 points and seven rebounds and Chris Bosh had 14 points and 11 rebounds as Miami got another 81 of 97 points from “The Big Two and a Half.” Miami will now await the winner of the Chicago-Atlanta series.
It was local basketball expert and former national basketball team star, Rick Watts of Winnipeg, who came up with “The Big Two and a Half.” We’d been calling them the Big Three all season, but after watching Bosh for a few games in the playoffs, Rick determined that the former Raptor was only half of a James or Wade and I couldn’t agree with him more. As Rick went on to say, “the best thing the Heat could do for its future is win the NBA Championship this year and then trade Bosh to get a legitimate big man.” He’s dead right again.
The Heat was terrific in this series against Boston and in the end, James was more gracious than many people might have expected. In fact, he told ESPN the following:
“I knew deep down in my heart, as much as I loved my teammates back in Cleveland and as much as I loved home, I knew it couldn’t do it by myself against that team. The way it panned out with all the friends and family and the fans back home, I apologize for the way it happened. I knew this opportunity was once in a lifetime. To be able to come down here and pair with two guys and this organization — in order for me to move on with my career, that team that we just defeated, we had to go through them.”
James is not a stupid man. And those who know him well will say he’s a decent guy. After beating Boston you can see why he did what he did last summer. And even he knows now that he was duped by Jim Gray and ESPN into that stupid TV show.
It was not a mistake to leave Cleveland. It was a huge mistake to leave Cleveland the way he did. He knows that. Wednesday night, he manned up.
Now it’s time to watch him go ahead and win a championship.