Champion, King, MVP, and Villain. These are just a few names Lebron James goes by on and off the court, but no matter what you call him, the fact is you know what to expect when number 6 is in town. And for Brooklyn Monday night, unfortunately Lebron was in town. The Brooklyn Nets were doing their best to tie the series between themselves and the Miami Heat and brought a good fight to them, but Brooklyn just couldn’t overcome the one thing stopping many teams in the NBA these days, Lebron James. The 6-foot-8, 250 pound animal poured on 49 points in Game 4 and is now averaging 30.3 points so far in this series and nothing, not even fatigue, is stopping him. The man has to be the best conditioned player in the league. As the Nets rotated players in and out of their rotation to defend James, they’re only hope was for them to go up on the Heat while Lebron took a seat. Here’s the thing though, LeBron wouldn’t allow that to happen. Midway into the fourth quarter Erik Spoelstra offered James a rest, but LeBron shaker his coach off and continued to stay in for the rest of the game. From there the Heat would just ride their MVP to the finish. The Heat now find themselves up 3-1 against Brooklyn and on the cusp of yet another Eastern Conference Finals.
For the Nets this seemed like the game that decided this series. The Nets did everything they could. They kept 2 of the big 3 in check throughout the series, and switched four different players onto Lebron. Double teaming, triple teaming, but nothing was stopping him from scoring. If Brooklyn can’t find a way to defend number six, they might be done for good in this playoff season.
Lastly the bigger question out of all of this is the NBA MVP. With LeBron playing like this in the playoffs he once again has shown that no one (even Kevin Durant) is on his level. With the Heat looking likely to play the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron will yet again have a chance to show his worth.
PureSportsNY: Bobby O’Hara