NBA

LeBron James Finally Hit His First Go-Ahead Basket With Less Than 10 Seconds Left In A Game Since Joining The Heat

by Jordan Rabinowitz | 9:00 am, March 7th, 2013

It took him almost three years (and nine failed tries), but LeBron James has finally flashed some clutch prowess in South Beach. With their 15-game winning streak in danger of ending at the hands of the lowly Orlando Magic, down 96-95 James hit a layup with 3.2 seconds left, putting the Heat up for good, 97-96.

It was pretty well known that since joining the Miami Heat, James had yet to do anything truly “clutch”, despite leading the team to two Finals appearances and a championship in two years. He had taken nine would-be go-ahead shots in the last 10 seconds of regulation or overtime, including the postseason, since the start of the 2010-11 season, but it was his 10th that finally stuck. James finished the game with 26 points, and his Heat’s winning streak was extended to 16 games.

Was this the last monkey LeBron James had to get off his back? I know this game was relatively inconsequential, but will the fact that he hit the coveted game-winning shot at all propel him to be able to pull it off flawlessly in the future, especially in postseason contests? All it takes is one poke or prod to wake the beast, so you never know. Video of the layup below:

[stats via ESPN, Getty Images]

http://www.facebook.com/verlaine.jr Verlaine Brunot Jr

“It was pretty well known that since joining the Miami Heat, James had
yet to do anything truly “clutch”, despite leading the team to two
Finals appearances and a championship in two years”

This
http://twitter.com/CloudFraction Cloud Fraction

This article is a mess. Lebron scored the last 10 points of a tied playoff game against Boston in 2011 and he scored the last 5 points in a come from behind game against Chicago, a 3 pointer with 45 seconds left and then a jumper with 30 seconds left then cause Desrrick Rose to miss his last shot. I guess that’s not clutch enough? He also hit a shot with a three pointer with 11 seconds left against Indiana to put it into overtime in a 2012 regular season game and a couple months ago hit a three pointer against Boston to put it into overtime. To say say Lebron hasn’t done anything clutch means you simply haven’t followed the Heat very much.
http://twitter.com/CloudFraction Cloud Fraction

Thank you, see my post above also for examples of other Lebron clutch shots since joining Miami. If you go to 82games.com they break down clutch stats in various ways and Lebron is near the top in every possible way to break down clutch and Kobe has very poor “clutch” stats, including missing his last 8 playoff “clutch” shots which stretches over three seasons. Lebron is actually probably the best player in the final 4 minutes of close NBA games and after last night’s shot against Boston I’d say Lebron is near the top in the final 20 seconds of games as well.