No he didn't.
For the playoffs, even with Lebron's poor performance in the Finals, Lebron averaged 24-8-6 while Wade averaged 24-7-4. They both took the exact same number of shots. They shared the scoring evenly, Lebron did fall more of the creating on offense (though somehow had fewer turnovers than Wade) and was far more important on defense.
Every team that faced the Heat focused on Lebron first, with Wade being secondary. The Mavs' entire defensive scheme revolved around what to do with Lebron. There's a reason why Lebron was on the court 44 minutes/game for the Heat, while Wade was only playing 39 minutes/game. If Wade was really carrying them, then why are they playing him 30 minutes less than Lebron in each of the last two series?
In the ECF against #1 seed Chicago, Lebron averaged 26-8-7-2-2 on 45/39/86 shooting with incredible defense on Rose.
Wade was at 19-6-2-2-1 on 40/20/83 shooting and meh defense.
Exactly. Spurs shot 53% in that series and 47% from three.
(Lebron was actually at 57% shooting and 52% from three, just to fix that stat.)
Duncan shot 57%, Ginobli was at 50% and 42% from three, Kawhi shot 61% and 58% from three, Parker shot 48% and 42% from three, Patty Mills was 54% and 57% from three, Danny Green was 53% and 45% from three, Bellinelli was 47% and 44% from three, Splitter shot freaking 71%...only Diaw dragged their numbers down.
How the hell is Kobe's "career 42% shooting in the Finals" ass going to outscore the Spurs when they're shooting like that? Every time he misses, the Spurs get another shot. You can't beat a team that's shooting 56% on twos and 47% on threes when you ain't even hitting half your twos.
Exactly...what are they going to do, have Wade be the creator? Have Kobe be the creator except that he has exactly ZERO shooters or dominant big men to feed? (The Heat's entire offense that year outside of Lebron basically revolved around Wade drives and Wade/Bosh hitting long twos.) What would happen to the Heat rebounding and defense when 240lb Joel Anthony, 230lb Chris Bosh, and 210lb Kobe Bryant are your three big men? Is Kobe going to defend forwards all game? Has Kobe ever shown the high-energy, constant-switching defensive chops that made defense with that team even possible? Is Kobe going to stop Rose in the 4th quarter in one game and then man up beasts like David West in other games?
You stay posting stupid.
Kobe had ONE series against the Spurs as the leader of the team, and Ginobli was hurt in that series.
The rest of the time the Lakers and Spurs met, Shaq and Duncan were clearly the best two players on the court and basically played each other to a standstill, both putting up great numbers. The Spurs focused their defense on Shaq and the Lakers focused their defense on Duncan. Kobe was the guy that Pop let get off a ton of shots as the second fiddle because he was way less efficient than Shaq - that how you end u with Kobe putting up 35-40 shots in those games. Anything was better than Shaq going 60% and fouling everyone out. The Spurs lost more than they won (Spurs got 2, Lakers got 3) because Kobe was better than the meager supporting cast that Duncan had, not because he outplayed Duncan at all.
So is the issue that you expect Lebron to be a better GM than all of the actual GMs?
I've never gotten this attack on Lebron. How is him having more say in front his front office does somehow mean that his team will magically be better than other teams? Even if he was an average GM, that would be shocking, because being a GM is a full-time job that doesn't involve almost any of the same skills as being an elite NBA player.
PG versus KB
2011-2012: 1 game, Kobe gets 33 points on 30 shots, Lakers lose
2012-2013: 1st game, Kobe gets 40 points on 28 shots but commits 10 turnovers, Lakers lose
2nd game, Kobe scores 0 points on 4 shots in 12 minutes, Lakers win
2015-2016: Kobe shoots 10-45 in two games combined, Lakers lose both
Kobe managed about a point a possession in his BEST games against the Pacers with PG, and the Lakers lost every game in which Kobe was a significant factor.
In what world is that "pretty well"? You think Kobe performed well just because he put up a lot of points while eating up a lot of possessions?
Think that inflated regular-season stats are going to translate to playoff basketball against real defenses.
And Kobe is just not the overall player LeBron is/was in that series. Make Kobe guard positions 1-5, get rebounds over them, take the ball up the court, and also be the PG, and see what you're going to get
