LeBron James has to be having déjà vu right now.
There he was Thursday night, in a playoff series, trying to carry four overmatched teammates on his back against a deeper, more balanced opponent. There he was, setting up open jumpers that teammates missed, enduring a huge minutes load at both ends and ultimately running out of gas at the end from the burden.
Welcome to Cleveland South, Mr. MVP. Because with Chris Bosh out injured, Dwyane Wade laboring through his own horror show of a series and nothing of substance to back them up, it's once again a LeBron-on-5 playoff series. He's good, but nobody's that good.
The irony, of course, is that he went to Miami so he wouldn't be in this position. The Heat were supposed to have complementary stars like Wade and Bosh to ease his burden, and then splurged on role players like Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem and Joel Anthony to fill out the roster.
Right now, none of that is working.
The talk is that James' play hasn't been up to his usual standard, but that's inaccurate -- he was amazing in Game 1, nearly as good until the final minute of Game 2 and more ordinary in Game 3. For the series he's averaging 27 points, 10 rebounds and 3 steals, taking nearly nine free throw attempts per game … basically, he's been just as dominant as he was in the regular season, aside from a 3-point malaise (1-for-11) that has overtaken the entire team. He missed two free throws at the end of Game 2 and has looked winded late in games from the heavy load on him right now, but otherwise there's little room for complaint.
LeBron also would have twice as many assists if any of his teammates could make a shot. Here's an amazing stat from ESPN's Stats & Info group: The Heat are 3-for-19 on unguarded, catch-and-shoot jumpers this series, including 2-of-12 in Game 3. That's like striking out in batting practice.
So if there's no penalty whatsoever for sending the kitchen sink at LeBron, his task will only get harder in the coming games. James didn't attempt a shot inside 10 feet in the second half of Game 3, the first time all year he went an entire half without one. Credit the Pacers' defense, yes, but one can fairly wonder whether fatigue is mounting.
Or perhaps it's a sore back, so to speak, from carrying his teammates. Wade's baffling awfulness in Game 3 -- part of a widening superstar sickness that has apparently infected Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant as well -- apparently is the result of a lower leg injury that also plagued him late in the regular season. But the weird part is that in between he went back to being the normal Dwyane Wade. He shot 50.6 percent in the team's gentleman's sweep of the Knicks, with the usual supporting Wade stuff -- 18 steals in five games, 30 free throw attempts, etc.
Even in the first two games of this series he wasn't terrible; Wade didn't shoot well from the floor but offset it with 24 free throw attempts in two games; overall he had 53 points on 57 shots (combining free throw trips and field goal attempts), which isn't great normally but was pretty solid given the defensive nature of the series thus far.
But in Game 3? Yikes. Wade shot 2-of-13, took only one attempt at the rim, stopped playing defense and made five turnovers -- having particular trouble with those pesky black lines surrounding the court. He's gone off the rails mentally too, with a cheap shot on Darren Collison in Game 2, a feud with his coach in Game 3 and getting hung up on meaningless side issues (they're celebrating too much!) rather than the main event.
So with Mario Chalmers suddenly his only reliable teammate, and a stout opponent that isn't getting enough credit, LeBron is in a familiar situation. Put a Mo Williams jersey on Chalmers and it might as well be the 2010 Eastern Conference semifinals against Boston all over again.
It didn't have to be this way, of course, except for a topic that hasn't received enough attention: As great a job as Pat Riley did in getting the three superstars to come together in Miami, he did a rather poor one assembling the rest of the team.
While still basking in the euphoria of netting the Big Three in the summer of 2010, Miami gave a full midlevel exception contract to Miller and nearly as much to Haslem. Haslem gave the Heat one really good series against Chicago in the 2011 Eastern Conference finals; Miller hasn't even done that much. Miami's other monetary splurges were on Chalmers, Shane Battier and Anthony; only Chalmers has paid dividends.
I can't help wondering whether Miami's "grinder" culture has something to do with this as well. The Heat love guys like Anthony, Haslem and Battier who are limited but bust their butts every day, play defense and sacrifice for the team. It's not hard to see why. Nonetheless, they're committing scarce cap dollars to assets and roles that other teams often fill with minimum contracts. This has been a staple of Riley teams in Miami, and he's made almost all of his worst mistakes on this type of player -- most notably with the Brian Grant contract, but also with countless lesser deals like these three.
So they reward Haslem, Battier and Anthony to the tune of $10.5 million in cap money, split nearly equally among the three. Take a look at free agents over the past two years who signed for that kind of money, and you can see the talent divide between what Miami bought and what the money could have gotten them: Shannon Brown, Mike Dunleavy, Vince Carter, Jason Smith, Jordan Farmar, Luke Ridnour, J.J. Barea, Tony Allen, Corey Brewer and Matt Barnes, as well as Dorell Wright and Daequan Cook (both of whom they already had on the team!) all signed for similar dough over the past two summers.
Think any of those guys could have helped Miami?
I'm oversimplifying, of course; there were some fairly terrible players who also signed for similar money. On the other hand, you can find better deals signed much more cheaply. Atlanta handed out seven minimum contracts this summer and wound up with a bench that runs circles around Miami's.
The Heat were unlucky, too. Haslem hurt his foot last year, Miller ended up being the wrong choice of shooter (the correct answer, Kyle Korver, went to Chicago), and some potentially helpful players turned them down.
Nonetheless, the Heat had four tries at adding a free agent to provide some real help, and largely struck out. Miami has four players who fill a specific role at the end of the rotation but don't do an iota more. For a second straight postseason they're starting another team's scraps (Mike Bibby a year ago, Ronny Turiaf this year) and scrambling to give their stars enough support.
Only this time they don't have three stars playing at a high level; they have one. Perhaps they'll survive anyway -- sooner or later these open jump shots will fall, and James may have a monster game or two left in him. But with Bosh injured, Wade neutered and the help wanting, The Decision is rapidly turning into The Re-Enactment.
Welcome to Cleveland, Fla., Mr. James. Hope you like the palm trees.
