LeBron James Makes The Right Play, The Heat Get A Wide Open Look Late
After LeBron James missed the front end of his two free throws, the Miami Heat found themselves down by three points with 6.3 seconds left on the clock. Instead of running an ISO, coach Spoelstra had the Heat run a nice quick hitting play that resulted in a three point shot:
As the ball goes to the trigger man, Mike Miller, Dwyane Wade comes from the ball side block and loops around a Chris Bosh screen, fading away from the basketball.
As this is happening, Eddie House comes from his low block spot and sets a screen for LeBron James, allowing James to get open in the corner.
Once James makes the catch, Wade puts his foot in the ground and changes direction, getting a second screen from Chris Bosh.
Wade comes off the screen not looking for a catch, but to set a screen for Mike Miller, who enters play after making the inbounds pass.
James hits Miller with the pass and Miller takes one quick dribble before pulling up for the wide open three. Unfortunately, the shot does not go in. Here is the play in real time:
Before I get into anything else, this is just a great play Erik Spoelstra. A head coach’s job is to put his players in a position to succeed and that is exactly what Spoelstra does here. He got his best three point shooter on the floor a wide open three point shot, one he could step into with a defender running at him. Miller probably makes this shot more often than not, but he just misses it here.
Now when this happened, a lot of folks on Twitter were bashing LeBron for giving up the ball in this situation and not attempting the game winning three point shot himself. What they are basically asking LeBron to do here is break off the play and take the shot on his own, but if Spoelstra is running a play he has faith in, shouldn’t he see it through? In the NBA, coaches feel like they are forced to give it to their best player and let him ISO late in games, no matter the situation. Even if the best player isn’t the best three point shooter when teams need a three, there is a tendency to give it to the best player and let him work. That doesn’t make sense. It is actually refreshing to not only see Spoelstra run a play appropriate for the situation, but seeing LeBron have faith in his coach and his teammates and not break the play off.
For whatever reason, people seem to think LeBron not breaking off the play is an indictment of his heart, how much he wants to win, or how clutch he is. However, if you think about it, LeBron willing to pass it to the best three point shooter on the court rather than try to do it all himself shows how much he wants to win the game.
If you want to get on LeBron for misses the front end of his two free throws, I have no problem with that, his foul shooting has always been suspect (for a player of his quality) and he hasn’t improved on it. But to get on him for making the right basketball play, that doesn’t make sense to me.
