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The moment the Miami Heat beat the Brooklyn Nets the focus went to LeBron James pulling off a 49-point game, with memes mostly making fun of Paul Pierce, who didn’t come off in the best of ways after talking trash through games and between them about how well he can do while guarding the best basketball player in the NBA.
Kevin Durant might be the elected MVP, but most would agree that James has been more impressive in the playoffs so far. Scoring isn’t the only thing that matters. Efficiency and simply not making mistakes goes a long way. The Heat haven’t really needed crunch time supremacy or brilliance up until now, but making things simple through most of the game is just as important as pulling off a great finish.
But this isn’t about Durant. This is about James, the Heat and the Nets. Brooklyn won all four regular season games, but there have been other teams that dominated the Heat in the regular season only to see a completely different team in the playoffs. The Heat might have peaked as a “dynasty” last year or even in 2012, but they are still much better than the Nets overall, even if it’s mostly thanks to LeBron James.
Maybe if Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson wouldn’t have been so cocky and arrogant all through the days leading up to game 4 the loss would have been treated differently. But they both talked about the Heat being beatable and how Pierce can handle James. While the first sentiment is true (only not true enough), except for small fractions, there’s not a lot Pierce can do to slow down James.