#2 - 2012 Eastern Conference Finals Game 6 - Boston Celtics (A)
Miami Heat 98, Boston Celtics 79
The game when everything changed. In my opinion, the best
game LeBron ever played. You can show me the highlights of his game against
Detroit, it doesn’t matter. Nothing can match the weight that was on
LeBron’s shoulders going into this one. He stood to lose everything. And not
only that, he was likely to lose everything. It seemed like everything they had
worked for was destined to end, ignominiously.
Before the game, LeBron vowed,
without even the hint of a smile, to do just one thing. To not have any regrets
about the way he played when it was all said and done. And so LeBron came out,
looking like he had never really looked before. He had a look on his face that
said he was bracing for a storm, but wasn’t going to let anything in. He had
blunted himself emotionally, not prepared to wince, and not prepared to
celebrate, either. After watching his teammates try unsuccessfully to get off
to a hot start, he decided early on to get down to business on his own. His first jump
shot was good. It felt like that was important. He would keep connecting with the jump shot. After every make, which seemed to come from more and more difficult shots, he would run
back to his defensive position with the same nonchalant look on his face.
At
one point he danced down the court, spun quickly at the top of the key and rose
in motion to get away a shot with barely a few seconds of the shot clocked
elapsed. Swish. Then he streamed through the lane, timed his jump perfectly,
and slammed home a putback jam. He had everyone’s attention. Still the same
look. LeBron fans had never seen him like this before. But they had never
really seen him in this situation before. In a way, they had, but not they had
seem him get to the point where simply refused to take it anymore.
As he kept hitting jumpers, some of them ridiculous tough,
over multiple defenders and falling away, the Boston crowd's fervour had started to be replaced by a silent fear. LeBron had shut them up. They were ready to sing again as soon
as Boston connected on multiple baskets in a row, but LeBron kept quietening
them.
And he signaled as much.
You were surprised when he missed his tough fallaway at the
half time buzzer. He had 30 and the Heat had the lead. He had played the
perfect half.
In the second, the Celtics started to mount a comeback.
LeBron missed a couple, and just when it looked like he might have cooled off,
he hit a couple more tough ones. It had passed the point of a ridiculous
performance a while ago. LeBron’s nonchalant look had started to fade, replaced
by one of intensity and passion, the one that had been hiding beneath the whole
time. After the Celtics had finally gotten the home crowd into a frenzy with a
run late in the 3rd, LeBron silenced them again with a huge 3. This
time he would hide it no longer. He looked at the bench and pointed, slapping
his chest defiantly as he gnarled at those who stood opposing him. He had done
his job. He had given all he had. The heat had a sizable cushion, and he asked
his teammates to help him bring them home.
And it was Wade he stepped up to the task. It was he who
owned the 4th quarter.
LeBron’s 45 and 15 is rightly recognised as one of his best
games. It wasn’t really a game for particular highlights (apart from the
putback slam, a nice signature play for the performance). It was more the feel
of the whole game, and the command of the performance from LeBron when watched
in full.
I still remember in detail everything about where I was and
how I felt when I first watched this game. I was on the road, having to watch
games on delay on my laptop. The previous defeat had been devastating. I
remember giving up all hope. Not because I didn’t think the team could bounce
back. They would prove they could time and time again. But because the odds
were stacked against them, they were one loss from elimination, on the road,
and I cared so much about the team I couldn’t face the prospect of watching a
losing game after going into it full of hope. So I prepared myself for a loss.
For it all to end. I settled down to watch the game, full of more nerves than I
had ever felt before while watching a sports game, and unknowingly donning the
same face LeBron would. I was trying to blunt myself too. I’ll never forget the
unique feeling of watching that game. Seeing LeBron responding to the pressure emotionally
in the same way that I was. Trying to blunt it. With every huge LeBron play, I
tried not to get too excited either. Not get ahead of myself, even as he built
the lead. At points I couldn’t help myself from cheering, such was the
performance. But only as Wade was putting on the finishing touches in the 4th
could I finally let go. Unclench my stomach. You knew you had been watching a game
for the ages as it happened. When it had finished, it felt like something seismic
had just happened. Like the NBA would never quite be the same again. It would
take the best game of all time to knock this one from the top spot.
I’ll never forget that look.
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