Despite finals loss, LeBron James playing the best he’s ever played

JR Isaga

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Despite finals loss, LeBron James playing the best he’s ever played

AFP

Despite his NBA Finals record dropping to 3-5, LeBron James gave everything short of his life on the court

 

The buzzers have sounded. The titles hoisted, the champagne popped. The final chapter has been written: The Golden State Warriors are the 2017 NBA Champions.

Kevin Durant has ended his 10-year quest to find the coveted title. Stephen Curry has joined an elite list of players who have won multiple MVP awards and NBA Championships. Oakland is on top of the world. 

On the other side of the narrative, LeBron James gave everything but his life to #DefendTheLand, but ultimately failed. His finals record has fallen further at 3 wins and 5 losses. While Oakland reigns, Cleveland has been reduced back to a meme-ified afterthought.

However, the numbers told a story not easily noticed amid the fanfare surrounding the eventual champions. The 32-year old James averaged a triple-double in the finals (33.6 points, 12.0 rebounds and 10.0 assists on 56% shooting in 42.4 minutes a game). 

No one has ever averaged a trip-dub in the finals. Not Jordan, not Bird, not Magic. So much for the “James is slowing down” storyline.

The statheads at the world-renowned Elias Sports Bureau looked even deeper into this unique achievement and found that aside from this particular finals stretch, James never scored more points, grabbed more rebounds and dished more assists in any 5-game span in his entire career – basically saying that his last 5 games have been the best basketball of his career.

He made sure he wouldn’t just go down, but instead go down swinging. 

Adding a bit of history may tell a bit more on just how impressive this feat is. Last year, when they came back from a 3-1 deficit and won it all, he was not able to top it. Even more startling is he still wasn’t able to achieve it in 2015, when they lost in 6 games to the Warriors while James was without his star companions in Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.

But maybe we’re just overthinking and certain circumstances led to him achieving this goal now and not before. So let’s look deeper in the numbers, since as always, they never lie.

These finals, James had a 63% true shooting (TS) percentage, 125 offensive rating (OffRtg) and 117 defensive rating (DefRtg) (Basically, the higher these numbers, the better you are).  

In last year’s finals, he only had a 56% TS, 114 OffRtg and 101 DefRtg. It was even worse in 2014, with numbers of 48% TS and a 104 apiece on Off- and DefRtg.

Like the proverbial fine wine, he has really gotten better with age. His secret? Do it like the Mamba. 

In a 2015 interview with the LA Times, just days after his 30th birthday, James said he has learned a lot about preserving his body from his friend, the legendary Kobe Bryant.

“You prepare every day like it’s your last,” James said at the Cavaliers shootaround prior to the team’s game against the Lakers at Staples Center. Bryant, who was still with the team then, was also battling numerous injuries caused by a 20-year basketball onslaught that netted him 5 NBA titles.

“You’ve got to be smart about it. Your body will let you know when it needs time.” 

The King did not say much in this year’s finals, but his performances spoke out loud and clear as a warning to the rest of the league: He may be down, but he’s far from out. – Rappler.com

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!