Roll Call: LeBron Are You Here?

Riding a three game losing streak coming into tonight’s game against the San Antonio Spurs, the Heat will certainly look to LeBron James to be near perfect with Dwyane Wade out with a multitude of leg injuries.

The problem with putting that much pressure on LeBron, is that he doesn’t play well with pressure at all and that may be an understatement. I’m not here to bash LeBron, just to point out facts and the facts are, come crunch time the Heat are better off putting in a 350 pound Charles Barkley.

I will be the first person to say it; LeBron James is the best player stat wise through the first 3 quarters without a doubt in anybody’s minds. It is no coincidence LeBron plays the least amount of time in the 4^th quarter between the “Big Three”. Bosh averages 9:50 time played, Wade with 9:29 and James at an astoundingly low 6:40. Does Spoelstra do this on purpose? Does LeBron ask to sit out? That is a staggeringly low number to me, that the supposed best player in the NBA is only getting a little over 6 minutes in the 4^th quarter. He hasn’t played a full twelve minutes in the 4^th this entire season. Bosh has done that 6 times and Wade 5 times and Wade is supposed to be the hurt one who needs the most rest.

You might say, once he gets in, he starts to go to work though. Not exactly, his 5.5 points and 69 percent foul shooting might be acceptable if it was his co-worker Joel Anthony, but not the assumed best player in the game. In overtime he gets even better or worse depending on whom you’re asking (Kobe fans or LeBron fans). With that you can take the following stats for what they’re worth, which isn’t much. In two overtime games this season, the “Chosen One” turns into the “Frozen One” shooting .166 percent from the field and scoring a total of 2 points. Naturally, the Heat lost both of those games.

Like I said before, this is the NBA’s most talented player. The most talented player isn’t always the one I want on my team when I need wins and shutdown performances. I need someone who is going to step up and say give me the ball, the game is going to be won or lost on my account. I want someone who is mentally tough enough to handle missing a game winning shot, missing clutch free throws or turning the ball over at the most important time of the game. Because those same players, are going to succeed more times than they fail. They have the utmost confidence in themselves to get the job done. LeBron James standing in a corner, not screwing the game up and shying away from pressure tells you about him as a player and a man, but also that he is not in a stable place mentally. In the 4^th quarter and overtime this year he is shooting .463 percent from the field, compared to his season average of .578 percent. My hands are getting sweaty just thinking about what is spinning through his mind after the 3^rd quarter. He could probably check-in to an insane asylum during crunch time with no problem.

            It’s Wade’s 30^th birthday today too and all of those injuries are a scary thought as to what lies ahead for the Heat. Wade is a proven performer in the clutch. He’s hit both of the Heat’s game winners this year along with a string of other dominating 4^th performances in his career. He is no spring chicken anymore though and the threat of him going down for a lengthy period of time has to be a real possibility considering his physical style of play. The Heat’s window for winning a championship might be smaller than people think, unless LeBron learns how to carry a team, which through 9 years he has proven incapable of such a task.