LeBron James has hit game winning shots before, and he’s hit buzzer beaters before. Amidst the current wave of criticism, he hit a huge half court buzzer beater as the Miami Heat walked all over the New Jersey Nets, only the game wasn’t on the line and it was the end of the third quarter.

Impressive? Yes. The Heat got Chris Bosh back and had it rather easy against a team still high on the fact that Deron Williams scored 57 points. Maybe someone at the Meadowlands thought that Dwight Howard will take a look, get excited and actually head over there all full of glee in his heart. The only thing happening right now with Howard is self searching and figuring out how the hell did they lose to the Bobcats?!

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Back to the Heat, who got Bosh back, but saw Wade tweak his ankle. No one really needed to be above good against the Nets. Brook Lopez didn’t play, D-Will wasn’t planning on trying to win it by himself, and the Heat broke out of their two game losing streak. Defense? The Nets aren’t about defense.

LeBron James scored 21 points, grabbed nine boards and dished six assists. Chris Bosh had 20 points. Mario Chalmers was the only player on the Heat to clock more than 30 minutes, while even Eddy Curry got to finish an alley-oop play, almost as impressive as LeBron James hitting his half court shot.

Criticism on LeBron – fair on unfair? A bit too much. He isn’t Kobe Bryant, he’s something different. It doesn’t really matter. He’s en route to a third MVP award. On the infamous ‘MVPs without NBA titles‘, there’s no one with three MVP awards and no rings on his finger. Steve Nash and James are the only multiple MVP winners without NBA titles.

James will simply have to win it, finally. It won’t really matter if he hits game winning shots along the way or not. It’s about being recognized as a champion. The moment that’ll be behind him, they’ll go picking on someone else.