We've heard this all before. "LeBron must surely be tired," "he doesn't have the teammates," "he's old," "the game has changed, and LeBron hasn't." These are all cliches that LeBron has overcome with this year's Cleveland Cavaliers.
This should have been the year LeBron finally missed the finals. Just the last summer, he lost Kyrie Irving, who many saw as the reason LeBron returned to Cleveland. His team had been decimated after various trades and overpaid bench players ate up the salary cap. Other Eastern Conference teams improved dramatically: Boston added Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving, and Philadelphia matured into a star-laden team with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.
Even Toronto somehow added depth in Proedl and VanVleet. This wasn't meant to happen.
What is actually happening?
The man is 33-years-old, yet shows no sign of backing down. LeBron James has been in the national eye since he was a high school student. Never has he been counted out to miss a final. Since his rookie year, LeBron has been the central figure in the post-Jordan NBA. So why is it surprising that he's set to make the finals again? After all, he's surpassed any reasonable explanation of success.
His team has relied on him all season, playing him 36 minutes a game while other superstars wind down their minutes. His heavy burden is not reflected in the standings though. Rarely has a LeBron team failed to make the top two of a Conference.
With heavy legs, weak defence, and a sputtering offence, his Cavaliers team limped to the playoffs. They struggled to handle a resurgent Indiana Pacers. The Pacers looked the better of the two teams, and the point differential showed how a different story was in the works. Pacers + 19 over the seven-game series. Had they gotten lucky?
How does this happen?
No! That was the emphatic response of LeBron's 43 point game. Grit and sheer determination was the answer. LeBron James showed a full array of offensive trickery, with cross court passes, powerful drives to the rim, and draining mid-range pull-up jumpers throughout the 4th quarter.
LeBron James does not lose these games no matter who the opponent is.
And there is no more unstoppable player, maybe in all of sports, than LeBron James when he is hitting his jumpers. It's often stated that a Basketball team consists of five players, not one. Yet when one of the players is a fully locked LeBron James, those other four generally step their game up.
That was seen tonight when JR Smith and Kevin Love had their best games all year. The team is elevated and better spaced when LeBron is playing like the best player on the planet, it seems. So does this mean he'll win his fourth championship? Can he beat whichever three-headed monster comes out of the west? Curry/Durant/Thompson's Warriors, or Harden/Paul/ Capela's Rockets seem to be in control of any game they play. Still, any team with LeBron James at the peak of his powers must be the favourite. We haven't seen anything yet folks.
