LeBron James Silences Critics, Carries Miami Heat to a Game 7 Against Boston Celtics

By: Stephen Patterson

Let me start this post off by saying this: If you missed Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat, I am truly sorry.

I remember watching LeBron in the 2007 postseason against the Detroit Pistons in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals when he scored 25 straight points for the Cleveland Cavaliers en route to 48 points total, including 29 of their last 30 points and the game-winning shot with 2 seconds remaining.

His performance in Game 6 of this series was on par with that one, if not better. In fact, it may have been the greatest performance of his entire professional career.

On Thursday night, the world witnessed something from LeBron James that no one had ever seen from him before, something that not only the Miami Heat desperately needed from him just to stay alive in the series as they entered the game facing elimination, but also something that he had needed for himself as well.

In what might have been the biggest moment of his career, James finished the game with 45 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 assists playing the first 45 minutes of the game before finally seeing his first rest after the game was well out of reach for the Celtics.

Not only did James completely destroy the Celtics on the court, he practically silenced 18,000 of their fans who had earlier been as lively as any crowd could be, hoping to see their team advance to the NBA Finals for the third time since 2008.

James has twice had seasons end in Boston, first in the 2008 postseason en route to Boston's championship and then again in 2010 (his last game as a Cleveland Cavalier), and he refused to let it happen for a third time, playing the entire game with an emotionless expression that is impossible to describe.

“Y'all see that look he had on his face tonight? He had that look on his face since last night at dinner. We knew he was going to come out ready to play. That's why he's the MVP. I call it his ugly look,” said Mario Chalmers to a group of reporters after the game.

James played as though he knew he had to have a performance of a life-time for his team to end their three game slide against Boston and avoid elimination at the TD Garden, where Miami had dropped 15 of their previous 16 games prior to Thursday night's victory.

Perhaps one reason James played so well was because he wanted to silence the hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the media that had spent the 36 hours prior to the game talking about how the Heat's "Big Three" experiment was a failure, that LeBron was never going to be clutch, that he couldn't go the extra mile when his teams needed him the most.

I think ESPN and Grantland's Bill Simmons may have put it best in a column he wrote yesterday called "The Consequences of Failure", which I would recommend to anyone that considers themselves to be a passionate sports fan:

"You can't imagine what this was like to witness in person. I know Michael Jordan had similarly astonishing games, and others, too, but not with stakes like that. This wasn't just an elimination game. This was LeBron James's entire career being put on trial … and it only took an hour for him to tell the jury, "Go home. I'm one of the best players ever. Stop picking me apart. Stop talking about the things I can't do. Stop holding me to standards that have never been applied to any other NBA player. Stop blaming me for an admittedly dumb decision I never should have made. Stop saying I'm weak. Stop saying that I don't want to win. Stop. Just … stop.""

While Michael Jordan is clearly still the greatest player of all-time, even he wasn't picked apart under a microscope the way James has been by the media ever since he was in high school and was billed as the "Chosen One".

LeBron definitely left plenty for the media to talk about after the Heat's 98-79 rout that had a majority of the arena empty by the time he took his first rest of the game with just over 3 minutes remaining.

He scored 30 points in the first half while shooting 12-14 from the field, keeping pace with Boston's entire team for much of the half until they hit a scoring burst midway through the second quarter.

He also absolutely demolished Paul Pierce on both ends of the court, holding him to only nine points on 4-18 shooting and scoring at will against him on the offensive side.

According to ESPN's Daily Dime, :LeBron's 45-15-5 stat line has only been seen once in postseason game in the history of the NBA prior to last night, accomplished by Wilt Chamberlain when he "had 50 points, 15 rebounds and 6 assists in Game 5 of the 1964 Western Division finals". He also led the Heat in all three of those categories.

He shot 19-26 (a whooping 76%, pretty amazing for that number of shots) from the field for 45 points while the remainder of his team shot 18-50 for just 53 points. As a matter of fact, Dwayne Wade was the only other player for Miami to reach double digits, scoring 17 points on 6-17 shooting.

Erik Spoelstra acknowledged after the game that LeBron had grown tired of constantly hearing reports that the Heat were done after letting Game 5 of the series slip away in overtime and that it might be the end of the "Big Three" down in South Beach.

“Nobody likes getting thrown dirt on your face before you're even dead,” Spoelstra said. “He came out with an attack mentality right from the get-go.”

The Heat definitely aren't dead for the season, at least not yet, after James put his entire team on his back and carried them to a Game 7 back at the AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami tonight.

"In an environment like this, you want to have a big game," LeBron said after the game. "I wanted to be there for my teammates, no matter what was going on throughout the course of the game. This was a gut check for us, and it's good to see we were able to bounce back after that loss, after that Game 5 loss at home."

If James plays even close to as efficiently as he did Thursday night in Game 7, and the rest of his teammates show up and do their part, it will be almost impossible for the Celtics to overcome.

“He hit a lot of shots he hasn't been hitting all series,” said Pierce of LeBron's huge game. “I've had that feeling before and sometimes there's nothing you can do about it.”

Pierce knows his team can't allow James to have another huge game like that or their season will be over and likely so will the "Big Three" era in Boston.

The Celtics will have to find a way to control LeBron's scoring in Game 7 without letting Dwayne Wade get too comfortable.

That is the problem Boston has faced all series long, however, prior to Game 6, the method had been working fairly well, with the defense double-teaming Wade often and letting LeBron go for his normal 30 points a night.

While they lost the first two games of the series using that strategy, it worked fairly well during their three game winning-streak. In fact, they have held Wade to just 5.8 points per game in the first half during the series' first six games.

If the Celtics change things up for Game 7 and decide to double team James instead, Wade will have to step up and have a performance similar to the one he had in the deciding game of the Heats' last series, when he dropped 41 points on the Indiana Pacers to eliminate them in six games and sent Miami to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Also, the Heat will need more from Chris Bosh offensively in Game 7. Bosh has played in the past two games of the series after missing three weeks with an abdominal strain that occurred in the first game of Miami's series with Indiana.

In his first game back, Bosh played only 14 minutes off the bench and finished with nine points and seven rebounds. In Game 6, he played twice as many minutes (28), however, he only finished with seven points and six rebounds.

Since it's unlikely LeBron will be able to duplicate his performance from Game 6, he will likely need his two superstar teammates to step up and contribute a lot more than the 24 combined points on 25 shot attempts they had in Game 7.

Regardless of how well James and the Heat play tonight, don't expect the Celtics to go down without putting up a helluva fight and leaving everything they have left in the tank on floor.

Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo will have their work cut out for them as they attempt to steal a second consecutive game in Miami.

However Game 7 ends up playing out, one thing is for certain: LeBron says he will have no regrets.

"I won't regret Game 7. Win, lose or draw, I'm going to go in with the mindset like I've had this whole season. And we'll see what happens."

If he plays with the same mindset that led to his 45 point outburst in Game 6, the Miami Heat will almost certainly be headed to their second consecutive NBA Finals.