The biggest loss of LeBron James’ career shouldn’t be looked at as James choking in the moment. It should be looked at James’ legs giving out and not enough of his teammates shots going in.
When LeBron James lost in the 2011 NBA Finals, James’ career was at rock bottom. However, looking back, James gave everything he could to the Miami Heat that season and that’s what led to them losing in the NBA Finals. His legs gave out right as he crossed the finish line and his teammates couldn’t pick up the slack to help him.
James believed that the alpha male of the team was Dwyane Wade.
Wade is three years James’ elder.
Wade had won an NBA championship before and at the age of 24.
As a matter of fact, Wade’s championship came in a Finals series against the Mavericks.
Wade took over in the clutch.
Wade was the captain.
It was “Wade County”.
It was Wade’s team, his franchise, his city.
So hearing that James deferred to Wade in the big moment, in the NBA Finals, when he hadn’t at any other point is obvious. What was he going to do? Snatch the throne from right under Wade rather than learn the ropes from him, as he went to the Miami Heat to do.
Because for all that James knew, what he didn’t know before he went to the Miami Heat was how to win a championship at the highest level. He didn’t have an organization with the type of culture or talent that the Heat had. He didn’t have anybody around him with the type of championship experience of Riley, who had seven rings before he met James and Wade, who was the 2006 NBA Finals MVP in just his third NBA season.
In the NBA Finals, it’s true that the Dallas Mavericks did all they could to make James defer, which only increased the likelihood that James would let Wade be the one to takeover.
Wade took 18 more shots and 29 more free throws than James in the 2011 NBA Finals despite Jame having a higher field goal percentage and higher three-point percentage.
He ended up averaging 26.5 points per game.
James averaged 17.8 points per game.
The Heat lost by a total of 14 points in a six-game series.
It’s not an exact science but if any player was to have averaged 2.3 more points per game than they had, the Heat might have won. After all, they lost Game 2 and Game 4 by a total of 5 points.
With the talent they had on the roster, there was no reason for them not to have potentially swept the Mavericks.
The reason everyone blames James for that series is because he averaged 8.9 points less than he had in the regular season and 5.9 points less than he had in the playoffs, when he started deferring to Wade.
However, he was only taking 2.8 less shots than he had been in the playoffs. He was only taking 0.7 more threes per game for all the talk of him settling for threes.
He wasn’t being aggressive though and instead of taking the ball to the rim, he took jump shots. He was taking 7.4 free-throw attempts per game in the playoffs. He only took 3.3 free-throw attempts per game in the Finals.
That’s where the biggest difference in his game lied.
According to Henry Abbot of ESPN’s TrueHoop, Brian Windhorst has said that James was fatigued in the 2011 NBA Finals as well.
"“It’s a nearly annual event for him to come into training camp with the goal of reducing his minutes. And sure enough, after he looked exhausted in the 2011 Finals and the Heat lost to the Mavs, his minutes per game declined from 38.8 in 2011 to 35.6 in 2016.”"
James played 43.9 minutes per game in the playoffs after playing 38.8 minutes per game in the regular season. He played 43.6 minutes per game in the NBA Finals.
James played 100 games and 3,985 minutes in his first season in Miami.
I would say Windhorst has a point.
By Game 4, his 19th game of the series, James was gassed. His fatigue definitely influenced his play at the end of Game 2 and Game 4, games the Heat should have won.
In the below video, the poster questions if James’ lackluster play in the fourth quarter was mental. However, every play posted looked like an instance of a player having lead legs.
In Game 4, James didn’t have lift in his legs for jump shots or even an emphatic dunk in transition. He couldn’t even turn the corner against Brendan Haywood to get to the rim.
(The next season, James would play 700 fewer regular season minutes after missing two weeks to deal with back pain.)
Wade and Bosh never played more than 40 minutes per game in the regular season or playoffs, unlike James. Wade would play 334 less minutes than James in their first season together. Bosh would play 356 less minutes than James.
Knowing that and seeing that, it raises a question of why Wade and Bosh didn’t do more..
Wade had already shown he was capable of scoring more. The first time the Heat and the Mavericks played in the Finals, Wade averaged 34.7 points per game.
In the regular season, Wade averaged 22.0 points per game against the Mavericks in 2010-2011 while shooting 48.5 percent from the field.
Wade only made 69.4 percent of his free-throw attempts, down from the 75.8 percent shooting he was doing in the regular season and 77.7 percent shooting he was doing in the playoffs.
Against the Mavericks, he missed quite a few free-throws that the Cleveland Cavaliers ended up needing.
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Bosh, who averaged as many as 24.0 points per game for the Toronto Raptors in both the regular season and the playoffs, was capable of doing more as well. He was ultra-aggressive, could have stood to be more efficient.
After shooting 49.6 percent from the field in the regular season and 47.4 percent from the field in the playoffs, Bosh only shot 41.3 percent from the field in the playoffs. After shooting 81.5 percent from the free-throw line in the regular season and 81.4 percent from the free-throw line in the playoffs, Bosh only made 77.8 percent of his free-throws in the playoffs.
He averaged 20.5 points per game against the Mavericks while shooting 51,5 percent from the field in two games against the Mavericks in 2010-2011. In the previous year, when he was on the Raptors, Bosh averaged 24.5 points per game while shooting 50.0 percent from the field.
Dirk wasn’t the athlete Bosh was and Bosh was quick and skilled enough to take advantage of the Mavericks frontcourt from the high post.
James’ efficiency didn’t change much.
His field goal percentage was 51.0 percent in the regular season and 46.6 percent in the playoffs. It was 47.8 percent in the NBA Finals.
His three-point percentage was 33.0 percent in the regular season and 35.3 percent in the playoffs. It was 32.1 percent in the NBA Finals.
His free-throw percentage was 75.9 percent in the regular season and 73.9 percent in the playoffs. It was 60.0 percent in the NBA Finals but there is a small sample size for his free-throw attempts in the Finals in comparison to the volume of attempts he took in the regular season.
James took 2.5 times as many free-throws in the regular season and 2.2 times as many free-throws in the playoffs.
But you know what’s more interesting than anything. James averaged 21.0 points per game against the Mavericks in the regular season while shooting 30.6 percent from the field and 25.0 percent from three-point range.
Before the Heat even took the court against the Mavericks, they knew that the Mavericks threw things at James that impacted his effectiveness. Topsy-turvy tactics like putting J.J. Barea on him, putting the irritant DeShawn Stevenson on him, Shawn Marion, Josh Howard. They threw everything but the kitchen sink at James when they played.
So coming into the game, the Miami Heat knew that Wade and Bosh would have to be the primary scorers while James used his all-around talent to bring it all together and bring the team over the top.
Bosh didn’t hit enough shots in his opportunities though. Wade was abnormally inefficient from the line.
At the point where the team’s best player was dead on his legs and often uncomfortable with the stellar defense played by the Dallas Mavericks and the other two members of the Big Three are missing shots they normally would hit, there wasn’t much Miami could do.
Related Story: The Dynamic Between LeBron, Pat Riley And The Miami Heat
Who do you think is at fault for LeBron James’ loss in the 2011 NBA Finals? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.
*All statistics referenced from www.basketball-reference.com