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LeBron James, The Jump Shooter, Leads Miami to Second Straight Championship

LeBron James, The Jump Shooter, Leads Miami to Second Straight Championship

Jun 21, 2013

There have been a lot of familiarities and similarities in the second straight NBA championship for the Miami Heat and their ‘big three project’. LeBron James taking over and being the team’s top superstar was certainly one of them as the 28 year old knocked down 37 points and picked up 12 rebounds in a dominant Game 7 performance. Championship number two certainly came with significantly more attrition than the first one. The Heat were brutally tested in a physical Eastern conference finals series against the Indiana Pacers and then mentally tested by an experienced, talented, efficient and balanced San Antonio Spurs roster.

There are a lot of things to remember from what was a memorable 2013 NBA Finals series, including Miami’s desperate Game 6 comeback, which ensured that the series went to a deciding Game 7.

However, what will surely stick in the minds of opposing players and coaches entering the offseason and looking ahead towards the 2013-14 NBA season will be the way in which LeBron James shot the ball in the deciding game.Heat

James’ improved jump shooting and particularly three-point shooting, has been well-documented this season. He has transformed himself into a 56% shooter from the field and 41% shooter from three-point range, which is not at all bad. In fact, one of the big story lines heading into these finals was the fact that Gregg Popovich wouldn’t be able to lock James out and give him just a jump shot as he did when the Spurs swept LeBron’s Cleveland in the 2007 Finals.

That wasn’t how it worked out. Instead, up until Game 7, these Finals had been notable just for how effective Popovich’s strategy had been. James struggled to get into the paint, his shooting percentage struggled especially late in games (with the notable Game 6 exception) and for much of the series the four-time league MVP looked like a man who felt tentative when it came to shooting the basketball.

The transformation between that and Game 7 can rank among the greatest in popular culture from Jekyll and Hyde to Clark Kent and Superman. He punctuated it with a late dagger mid-range two-point shot jumper, which symbolized just about everything that was fantastic about Thursday’s performance.

James finished 5-10 from three-point range and 12-23 from two-point range. He also finished with half of his team’s 16 free throws (another often cited weakness in his game) making every single one of them.

Even after his 2012 title triumph, it has felt like many are waiting for LeBron to fail when it comes to this year’s playoffs. It’s almost as if people got so used to the ‘choke’ talk that surrounded James that they don’t know how to use a different dialogue. A different book needs to be written about LeBron James after the way he played late in Game 6 and in Game 7. He now has two straight championships. His shooting display on Thursday night was a warning to the NBA’s challengers that he is very capable of winning two or three more.

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