The Game 5 performance was pure theater, LeBron James gathering himself once more to pull the Los Angeles Lakers into the NBA Finals for the first time in a decade. His fourth quarter, during which he sucked the air from the pesky Denver Nuggets, was epic. The stuff of which dreams are made.
Beginning Wednesday night, we’ll see how much LeBron has left.
It won’t be as much as he would like. Might not be enough to put away the fearless Miami Heat, who have come to believe they own “the bubble.” They enter these NBA Finals as a single-file line of graduates from the Muhammad Ali school of swagger.
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LeBron will be waiting. He’ll be hungry. He’ll want nothing more than for the series to end with him cradling the Larry O’Brien while pointing a victorious finger to the sky and bellowing the words Lakers fans have been aching to hear for nearly nine months:
“This is for you, Kobe.”
That happens only if at least one teammate soars from the shadows –- someone besides Anthony Davis and Playoff Rajon Rondo –- and somehow carries much of the load LeBron has borne for most of his 17-year career. Can Kentavious Caldwell-Pope shock us all? Dwight Howard? Kyle Kuzma? Markieff Morris? Alex Caruso? Somebody? Anybody?
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Golden State Warriors
The 2020 Finals is the last call for LeBron. And we say that without an ounce of malice.
He has spent most of his career as the NBA’s truest test for a quality opponent. With 16 All-Star games, 10 NBA Finals appearances, four MVP awards and three NBA championships, his career résumé can be split in half and produce two Hall of Famers.
LeBron is 35 now. He’s picking his spots, as any wise player hoping to prolong his career would. The years climbing aboard his back are getting heavier. The 59,125 total minutes -– more than any perimeter player in league history- – are punching at his legs. Father Time is coming for one of his more resistant foes.
LeBron conceded Tuesday that this season has been particularly difficult. There was the extra-long pause in action between mid-March and late-July, followed by the long period of being sequestered in the bubble. It has been almost three months.
“It's probably been the most challenging thing I've ever done as far as a professional, as far as committing to something and actually making it through,” he said. “But I knew when I was coming what we were coming here for. I would be lying if I sat up here and knew that everything inside the bubble, the toll that it would take on your mind and your body and everything else, because it's been extremely tough.”
It’s tough on everybody. It’s beyond tough on someone like LeBron, who so wonderfully balances family life with professional commitment. There was, for the first six weeks, no allowance for families in the Disney bubble. For LeBron, there still is not. He has not seen his children since mid-July. He said in August that he “misses the hell out of” his family.
LeBron also deals with intermittent groin soreness that, five years ago, would have dissipated.
Then there is Miami, which has two players, Jimmy Butler and Andre Iguodala, that defend LeBron as well as anyone ever has. Butler is willing to get physical, and Iguodala can match LeBron’s mental game. That fourth quarter that buried Denver won’t be recreated.
And, by the way, Bron’s best sidekick, Davis, will up to his unibrow with Bam Adebayo’s superb defense. Expect Butler and Adebayo to occasionally swap assignments. Their defensive versatility is amazing.
For LeBron to win his fourth ring, the unsung members of his supporting cast will have to appreciably outplay Heat players not named Butler or Adebayo. Based on what we’ve seen in the bubble, that’s a bet of long odds.
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A few years ago, this likely would have been a Lakers victory. LeBron at 30 was a monster, capable of single-handedly tilting a series. The Warriors surely beat LeBron three times in four Finals, but they generally demolished his Cleveland supporting casts.
LeBron at 35 is fabulous. He followed a terrific regular season with a fantastic postseason. But he has 10 to 15 minutes of magic on any given night, and 10 to 15 minutes of being merely good. The rest of the time, he is, dare we say, vulnerable.
Though he still has plenty to offer, and seasons to play, this is his final chance to be the featured performer on the league’s best squad.
We’re riding with Father Time. Heat in 6.