LeBron James, Dwyane Wade dominate but lose Chris Bosh in the process

Dwyade Wade sends a half court alley-oop to LeBron James early in the first

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade put on a show yesterday in the second half of game 1 of their 95-86 win over the Indiana Pacers. The newly crowned MVP had 32 points and 15 rebounds. He had 26 of those points in the second half. LeBron even matched the Pacers point total of the forth with 16. 

D-wade had a bad shooting night from the floor but still managed to put 29 up. Timely baskets and 13 of his points coming from the line, helped the Heat outscore the Pacers 54-38 after being down by six at the half.

This was LeBron's first 30-15 game in his career during the playoffs. He's also led his team in 3 categories during a playoff game for the twenty first time, by far the most in NBA history.

It was an amazing 1-2 punch. They're going to need more of that for the rest of this series, now with Chris Bosh likely out indefinitely.

Chris Bosh suffered an abdominal strain after this second quarter slam

It happened in the final minute of the second quarter. Bosh drove down the lane for a dunk and got fouled for the and one. In doing so he strained an abdominal muscle. After making the free throw and playing one more series of defense, it was evident that he was in plenty of pain. He came out of the game and never came back.

That wasn't a problem for LeBron and D-wade.

Together they outscored the Pacers in the second half and showed why one of them has won 3 of the last 4 MVP's and the other is considered a top 5 player in the league.

In listening to First Take this morning, I'm in total agreement with Stephen A. Smith of ESPN that this might be a challenge for LeBron to show why he is the MVP. Also if any two players can lift there game up and carry a team, its these guys.

The pressure will actually be off LeBron since he was doubted to win a title with this team fully intact. He can play free and I think that's what we've been seeing during the final quarter of each game of these playoffs.

It will be hard to win without Bosh no doubt, but I still take my chances with LeBron and D-Wade.

LeBron Wins 3rd MVP, Joins an Elite Class

LeBron receiving his 3rd MVP trophy

             

"Heat nation, we have a bigger goal. This is very overwhelming to me as an individual award. But this is not the award I want, ultimately. I want that championship. That's all that matters to me."

That is what the 3-time MVP, LeBron James, had to say in closing during his speech this afternoon at the Triple A. 

Another MVP award is great, but this man has a title in sight.

LeBron in his ninth year is reaching the prime of his career

LeBron had one of the most efficient seasons in NBA history. With numbers like 27 points, 8 boards, 6 assists, 2 steals , a block and shooting 53% from the floor per game. That's a stat line that hasn't been seen since the days of Michael Jordan in the eighties. This guy does it all. Not to mention LeBron should have also won the defensive player of the year. He covers all five positions on the floor. As the young kids say, HE'S SICK!

But once again, all of that means NOTHING without hoisting the title come June. 

By winning his third MVP in four years, LeBron has joined an exclusive group of NBA greatness. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar(6), Michael Jordan(5), Bill Russell(5), Wilt Chamberlain(4), Magic Johnson(3), Larry Bird(3) and Moses Malone(3)

The one thing separating LeBron from these icons of the game is that elusive title. The one silver lining here is  that Wilt and Moses both won their first title after winning their third MVP. 

The chase for that title continues Sunday when they open up the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs at home against the Indiana Pacers.


LeBron James acceptance speech: http://www.nba.com/video/

Source: nba.com  

LeBron, Heat finish off broken Knicks

LeBron James has never lost in the first round of the playoffs(7-0)

Four of the first five picks of the 2003 draft were center stage for the Heat-Knicks first round match-up this year. The problem for the Knicks was they had one to the Heat's three. LeBron James had 29 points, 8 boards and 7 helpers to lead the Heat to a 106-94, series closing win over Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks.

Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade both had 19 points in the clincher.

The Knicks were suppose to give the Heat a serious challenge in this series, but that wasn't to be. Injuries to both Iman Shumpert and Baron Davis during the first four games, not to mention losing Jeremy Lin at the beginning of April, left the Knicks undermanned against a Heat team focused on getting back to the NBA finals.

Let's not also forget Amare Stoudemire's bone head decision to take out his frustrations on a fire extinguisher after game 2.

LeBron got the best of Melo in their first ever playoff meeting

I would like to write some more things about this game and or this series, but to be completely honest, this match up was a joke. The Heat outscored the Knicks by 18 points in their 4 wins and lost by only 2 on the road in game 4.

The only reason the series got as much pub as it did was because of the cities involved. This was nowhere close to the battles these two teams had in the late nineties, with all four previous meetings going the distance.

So I'll leave you with some fun facts about the departing New York Knicks.

-In 29 playoff games against the Miami Heat, they have yet to score a 100 points in a game.

-It's been 4,373 days(12 years) since the Knicks won a playoff series(2000 East semifinals against the Heat)

-Before they won their first game in 11 years last Sunday, breaking an NBA record 13 straight games lost in the playoffs, the Brooklyn Nets(former New Jersey) had won 43 playoff games in that span.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat%E2%80%93Knicks_rivalry

Melo, Amare save Knicks season

Amare's 20/10 & Melo's 41/6 keep Knicks alive

The Knicks needed a herculean effort from their "big 2", Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire to avoid getting swept from the playoffs for the second straight year. They came up huge. Melo dropped 41 on the Heat, one off a career playoff high. Amare scored 20 and had 10 boards. This coming off his infamous fire extinguisher incident from game 2 last week. Together they helped New York snap a 13 game, 11 year playoff win drought. They went 4,026 days between wins. Talk about getting a monkey off your back.

Even though the Knicks won the game yesterday, they lost another important player on their team. Baron Davis suffered a dislocated patella(knee cap in layman's terms) in the middle of the third quarter. After losing Iman Shumpert to an ACL in game 1 and Jeremy Lin still a question mark to return to the line up, the Knicks will have to rely on veteran point guard Mike Bibby to carry the load. He did knock down two clutch 3-pointers, the second coming with 1:23 left in the game breaking an 81-all tie.

The problem now lies with the fact that come Wednesday they will try to avoid starting a new streak. No team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a 7 game series. 

So New York I hope you enjoyed your one win in the series because I'm sure LeBron and Dwade know that I picked the Heat to win in 5...