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The Miami Heat face critical questions as they battle to avoid a fourth straight NBA play-in appearance. Can Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro lead the post-Jimmy Butler era to a true playoff series win, or is this roster destined for more disappointment? Wes Goldberg and David Ramil break down the team’s latest struggles, dissect the impact of key injuries, and debate whether anything short of a first-round win signals failure for the South Beach squad. With the Los Angeles Lakers visiting Miami, speculation swirls: Could this be LeBron James’ farewell in the city where he cemented his legacy? The hosts preview the Lakers matchup, assess the monumental task of slowing down Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, and spotlight LeBron’s unforgettable performances as a Heat opponent. Will Miami fans show respect or hold a grudge as history unfolds on their home court?
00:00: Heat Play-In Debate
12:24: Lakers Matchup Preview
22:59: LeBron’s Last Game in Miami?
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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.
This is Wes Goldberg from Lockdown NBA and Lockdown Heat with a message from Dell.
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The heat looked to get back on track on Thursday versus the Lakers, but will they be facing
LeBron James for the last time?
You are locked on heat.
You are daily Miami Heat Podcasts, part of the Lockdown Podcasts Network, your team
every day.
Alright, welcome to Lockdown Heat, I'm Wes Goldberg here with David Ramell, a Lockdown
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On today's show, we're going to take a look at the biggest thing that the heat have to
do to beat the Lakers tonight, and what it means if this is LeBron's last game in Miami,
and we start though with the heat, who after winning Seven Straight have now lost two games
in a row, and that last win a little bit of a shaky one against the Milwaukee Bucks,
David.
Right now, the heat are seventh in the Eastern Conference, one game behind Orlando because
of the tiebreaker.
The standings will show a half game, but they really are a game behind Orlando and then
a game behind Toronto.
They're a half game up on Atlanta.
We are full disclosure, recording this before the games on Wednesday night, so this could
change after the Raptors and Hawks, both play tonight.
These last two losses are for the heat, the first two losses that they've had since
BAM publicly challenged the team to get out of the play in tournament, but they're still
on the bubble.
Here we are, even after that seven game win streak, there's still very much in that play
and mix.
So David, would a fourth straight play in appearance mean that this season was a failure,
regardless of what happens potentially in the postseason?
Absolutely.
I think it's the goal was always to avoid this.
You started off, you've been through some ups and downs over the course of the season,
but I think the team generally felt like they were better than what their record reflected
you and I had talked about that a number of times, and I think the team recognizes that
they have been a disappointment.
Maybe it's not a huge degree of disappointment, maybe it's just a handful of games that they
probably should have won during the regular season that they wound up losing, but now here
they are in a very familiar position, and absolutely it does feel like a disappointment,
does feel like a failure, because this team isn't good enough to be considered any kind
of top-tier contender.
So the only advantage that you could have created was to try and get a home court advantage
or at least not be one of the bottom things where you have to fight for your chance, just
to be in the play-in tournament, just to be able to get the seventh or the eighth seed,
to face a tougher competitor and Detroit or New York or Boston, and to have to go in there
as an incredible underdog.
So I think they wanted to be better than what the record reflects.
They've put themselves in this position because of losses that they shouldn't have allowed
to happen, and they had to be able to win as many games as possible over this last few
games stretch, and they just haven't done that with the most recent losses.
So if they wind up in exactly the same spot for where they've been for the last couple
of years, absolutely it feels like a failure because they don't have Jimmy Butler or anybody
else that's capable of saving them once they get into the playoffs.
Now that last part I think is an important part, right, because I do think the context
to your does matter, right, where a year plus since they traded Jimmy Butler in the middle
of the year, and they are sort of rebuilding this team on the fly, right?
We have this brand new offense, there's a bunch of new players around, I mean, this is still
a little bit of a team kind of figuring itself out and trying to figure out what it looks
like post Jimmy Butler.
That said, I do think that the talent outside of your number one guy in Jimmy Butler over
the past few years, I think this team is more talented basically two through 15, two
through 14 at this stage than those last couple of Jimmy Butler teams.
So you don't want to be in the same place you had been in, but at the same time, and we've
seen star players leave teams and teams do a whole lot worse than this.
The first year that they leave, right LeBron left and the heat were not good that first
year after he left, I mean, you think about even when Kevin Durant left the warriors,
I mean, granted Steph Curry broke his hand, Clay Thompson had the knee injury, but they
were awful, right?
They were right back in the lottery.
So it is hard to win games consistently when you lose your star player because so much
of after you lose the star player isn't just recouping talent, but it's also figuring
out what your new identity is as a basketball team as an organization.
Fortunately, this heat team has always had a strong identity and it kind of felt, frankly,
like their identity wasn't even really Jimmy Butler.
The last couple of years he was here because he was always not one foot out the door, but
not totally committed to like the heat culture stuff and kind of Jimmy kind of was doing his
own thing.
Bam and a bio was the captain, right?
Jimmy Butler wasn't.
And so I do think the context around all of this is a little bit different and that Jimmy
leaving isn't necessarily the same as other star players leaving also because Jimmy Butler
was basically Tobias Harris in the regular season and then became Michael Jordan in the
playoffs.
So in terms of regular season success, the loss of Jimmy Butler really isn't that big of
a deal for the heat, right?
We're talking about half a dozen games where you really turn it on over the course of
the regular season.
Now maybe those half a dozen games would have been the difference between this heat team
being a playoff team versus a play-in team.
But again, I do think that this team is a lot more talented than, you know, two to fifteen
than it had been in the past.
And if you still had Jimmy, by the way, you don't have Norm Powell and you don't have
some of these other guys on the roster.
So you don't have to spare a scachachonist, right?
So.
Right.
I think you were hoping for a step up.
Now, is it as simple as just getting out of the play-in tournament, David, because like
what if the difference between the seventh seed and being a play-in team and the sixth seed,
we're talking about a game.
Like, are we really going to justify or judge this season based on a single win, which
it very well could come down to, right, the difference between sixth and seventh.
We're going to be like, oh, because this team won one more game and is the sixth seed.
Now this right-low season is a success versus you lost that game.
Now you're the seventh seed.
Now we have to label it a failure.
I think to flip the question around, it's not necessarily to view it as a failure.
The only way that this season is viewed as a success is if they win at least one play-off
series.
And whether that comes being the fifth seed, the sixth seed, or the seventh seed, or
the eighth seed, it doesn't matter.
It just, you put yourself in a position where it's a lot less likely to happen when you
face the top seeded team in the Eastern Conference.
I don't know if a seven-game series against the Detroit Pistons will work out as easily
as, say, another matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers if it's a fourth-fifth matchup or
going up against even the Celtics that you're familiar with.
That's not an ideal matchup, but the only way for Miami to make this season feel like
a success is to have some kind of win in the playoffs.
You can't just do what you did last year.
The sour taste of getting swept historically swept the way they were against the Cleveland
Cavaliers is something that they have to erase and the only way they can do that is by
winning out and winning the first series at the playoffs.
I can't expect them to go much further than that.
I think even a first-round series would be, a first-found series win, excuse me, would
be next to impossible, but it's the only way that Miami could say, you know what we did
the best we could, given the fact that we don't have a top-tier superstar on our roster.
That we're just good enough that we are talented and we're better than we've been, maybe
two through 15, but we're still missing that number one.
That we were at least able to win against probably a better opponent.
Yeah, so right now, the top four seeds in the east are pretty much shaping up to the
point where we can kind of figure out what it's going to be.
The pistons are going to be the number one seed.
The Celtics are going to be the number two seed.
The only real question is really three-two Celtics nicks.
They both have 45 wins.
The Celtics are 45 and 23.
The nicks are 45 and 25.
So those two teams could still potentially flip, but the Cavs have slipped a little bit
here.
They're 42 and 27.
Kind of feels like they're locking themselves into that four spot.
And that would be a four-five matchup right now.
Again, looking at the standings as of Wednesday morning, Cavs raptors.
If the heat can get up to that five spot, which is still very much a possibility, right?
The raptors and the heat, as we're talking, both have 38 wins.
We don't have to do a whole Cavs deep dive.
I would just say they're the most vulnerable of the top four, I would think.
So that's probably the spot that you want to get in if you're Miami.
And then at that point, you get a chance at revenge and be a chance to actually move out
of that first round because I don't think anybody would be surprised if the heat upset
the Cavs in the first round, because just the way that the Cavs have been all season long,
so up and down, right?
And this Miami Heat team, I don't think anybody would be surprised if they even pulled the
upset.
Now, if they upset the nicks of the Celtics, the pistons, I think that would qualify
as a surprise.
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, they are better teams.
They've been much more consistent over the course of the season, too.
So I think all of them would be a surprise.
Honestly, I don't think anybody would project Miami to beat the Cavs, even as vulnerable
as the Cavs have looked at late.
I think they would still be, and especially given what we saw last year.
I mean, I know it's a different.
It would be an upset, but I don't, it wouldn't be shocking.
Like that, if you woke up after that series, like, whoa, my God, the heat beat the
Cavs, I don't think anybody would be like, I can't believe that happened.
I don't know.
I mean, again, I think that the stench of last year's playoff run certainly did not
help.
And I think that's kind of, yeah, maybe understood the context of it, that post Jimmy
Baller thing.
Yes.
And no, like, I mean, we're still hearing about it from even heat fans, like the heat
fans overlook the idea of how, just how deeply entrenched Jimmy Butler and the whole
stress of that affected this team.
And so I think now, if you, if you wind up pointing to that, and I think that's what
I think it's a very real thing to say, you know what, the Jimmy situation took its
toll emotionally, and it was difficult for them to try and find their identity as we
talked about.
And you go into the playoffs and yeah, you can kind of excuse it to a certain degree.
Although, again, it was such a historic beat down in the playoffs that that's kind of
hard to overlook.
But you know what, now you start off a whole new season, you're fresh.
It's, you can't point to that anymore.
And if you wind up going into a playoff series and wind up duplicating that, then what
of you accomplish?
You're stuck in the middle.
You're still doing exactly the same thing.
If you end up with the calves and you get blown out by the calves again, that's a, then
you start that, that's the sort of thing, and you can even argue this maybe last year.
But again, the Jimmy Butler context did matter.
Yes.
But if that happens two years in a row, then as a front office, you have to really look
at yourself in the mirror and ask some difficult questions.
But we are very far from that.
On the flip side, we are very close to a game against the Lakers tonight.
In Miami, we're going to talk about what the heat need to do to beat the Lakers, get back
in the wind column.
We'll talk about that next here on Lockdown Heat.
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Welcome back to Lockdown Heat.
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Let's look ahead to tonight's game against the Lakers.
Again, full disclosure, recording this on Wednesday morning before the injury report
comes out.
We're not going to know right now whether or not Bam at a bio or Andrew Wiggins are
playing.
I'm going to go ahead and assume David that Bam is going to play.
He's going to try to play.
Still no update on Wiggins.
I'm going to go ahead and just scratch him until I hear anything different.
We, by the time people are hearing this, they have heard something different.
But for the paces of our conversation, I'm going to go ahead and assume Bam's going
to play in Wiggins won't.
The last time that these teams played, they met on November 2nd.
That was with Tyler Heroes still dealing with his offseason foot surgery and LeBron James
still out with the sciatica that kept him out for the first part of the season.
The Lakers won that game by 10 points, 130 to 120 in Los Angeles.
Everybody struggled on the heat except for Jaime who at 31 points off the bench.
LeBron didn't play like I said.
LeBron James and Austin and LeBron James combined for 55 points.
That's what I think is the biggest question for the heat.
Several months later, as they meet at the end of the season, can my Emmys back court of
Tyler Hero now play in this game?
Norman Powell, can they keep up with this LeBron James back court of LeBron James and
Austin and LeBron James.
Absolutely not.
That is a really difficult match up.
Like neither of them are capable of guarding Luca even at their best and that's certainly
not the case.
Both of them are still rusty offensively and defensively they both have their issues.
So the challenge is to try and contain Luca.
I would say that your best bet of that is Andrew Wiggins returning to the floor and obviously
I don't think that's likely to happen.
So without Wiggs out there, I don't know that you have a capable wing defender that's
going to challenge Luca and keep him from getting comfortable like he's going to get
his regardless.
Whether it's drawing fouls at a high level or shooting from 28 feet out, he's going to
be able to point stuff.
That's just the way he is a superstar for a reason.
So the trick is to try and either allow him to get his with a subpar defender and shut
down Reeves or at least limit what he can do.
But I don't think that you're capable of doing both.
So I don't know given who we have available, who Miami will have available on Thursday,
it's going to be a really difficult challenge to try and contain both of those players.
So my thought would be that you try to challenge Luca as much as possible, but keep Reeves
from going off because we've seen that that recipe can work.
I mean, Luca is capable of putting up 50, but at the same time, I feel much more comfortable
about Miami being able to allow him to at least make things a little bit uncomfortable
for him not necessarily stop him because that's not going to happen.
But I would rather focus on keeping Reeves from getting going off because if you allow
both of them to go off, then you have no prior given what we saw from Miami against Charlotte
where they couldn't defend anything, especially in the fourth quarter, at least key in on
trying to limit Reeves.
Yeah.
Let Luca get his make sure that nobody else really pops off, including Austin Reeves.
Again, he's your son.
Austin Reeves is playing it at all star level when he's been out there this season.
I think you put Davion on Reeves.
Maybe you put Pella if Wiggins isn't available on on Luca, and then it's going to be
foul trouble.
But I kind of like the idea, well, that can go one or two ways.
We also see people try to get under Luca's skin like the bulls did the other day and then
Luca pop off for 50 points and then render the entire defense useless.
So I almost like, or you put Pella on Luca and then he does get under his skin and maybe
bothers Luca a little bit.
I don't know.
Maybe you just throw, maybe you Galaxy brain this thing.
So Tyler Hero on or Norm Powell or somebody like that on Luca and just be like, look, you're
going to score anyway.
So he might as well just put one of our worst defenders on you.
What's the difference?
You're going to score on our best defender.
We're not going to waste one of our best defenders on you, in other words, in a weird
way.
Let's put them on these other players.
Bam is obviously the key here, right?
Because Luca's going to run a ton of pick and roll.
And if Bam is back at the five and Miami's going to switch everything, then that's sort
of the answer, right?
So if you're going to get past the first line of defense, you're Luca Donchitz, you usually
do anyway.
But on that back end, it's Bam out of bio and good luck with that.
And so that's really, I think the answer here is that second line of defense, which is
going to be Bam, hopefully.
I think we'll see quite a bit of zone in this game as we do with the heat generally speaking.
I do think it's interesting to face this team now with LeBron and LeBron, sliding into
more of a complimentary role, right?
He's taken whatever is like 13 shot attempts in these last few games.
Not touching the ball as much.
Very much playing as a role player, defending at a higher level, hustling in a way that
we haven't really seen LeBron hustle in a couple of years at his age.
I do think it's a little interesting to kind of face this version of LeBron and this
Lakers team that is playing really well right now.
Defensively, JJ Redick is going to scheme something up, right?
We saw them send doubles relentlessly at Kevin Durant and their win against Tuston
the other night.
I don't know that the heat have somebody like that that you got to specifically scheme
against.
I know that Redick will either will have something ready to go for this up tempo offense in
the way that the heat like to play in isolation.
And by the way, we saw them go, they were one of the first teams, maybe the first team
to play a heavy amount of zone against the heat early in the season.
Yeah, that makes sense too.
They got Marcus Smart out there.
He's not the defender he once was.
I would say he'll probably start off.
I guess he would start off on Tyler given the history between them too.
I think he would probably guard Tyler, but then he sent a double over with Reeves.
Reeves would probably be picking up Powell and Mitchell would probably not be defended at
all really.
They had Luca on Mitchell or Pella.
Yeah.
I think that's generally the case.
I think this is a matchup where you might want to go big actually.
You go with Calil and Bam if they're both available.
And then if you get Davey on Tyler and Norm out there.
So I don't know if they would even or Pella, excuse me, I'd bring Pella in the starting
line up and then continue to bring Norm off the bench, they're considering maybe considering
that he might be struggling a little bit and see if he accepts that, you know, after
being in the starting lineup on to use it, maybe he'll go back to coming back.
Try to pummel the Lakers.
Just try to, hey, you know, Luke is going to do his thing.
We're not going to keep up with that court, but let's just try to win all the other areas.
I think where versus the eight in his matchup and then Bam has to, I think Bam has to
be able to pick up LeBron a little bit because he is more.
He's a free rumour out there like he's not, they're not running the offense through him,
but he's such a good playmaker even at this stage in his career that that makes him extremely
dangerous. So you want to be able to have somebody that can contain that versatility.
So I would put Bam on LeBron where versus eight and and see how that plays out.
I don't hate that I tend to think Spowe will go small just because he does tend to match up
and not try to, you know, you know, you know, do that.
I do think the point overall of get back to the margin battles, you've got to out rebound
the Lakers. They've been playing really hard. They've been playing really well lately.
The heat have to play harder. They have to play weller than the Lakers do right now.
They just, they got, win the boards, turn over slow, all of it, man.
Like we're not, we're not breaking any news about how the heat are going to win this game.
What if this is though LeBron's last game in Miami? David, I prepared a really fun list for us
to talk about. Some of LeBron's greatest games in Miami as the enemy. We'll talk about that next.
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This is Nick Gangthead with the Lockdown Mavericks podcast. This message is a paid partnership with
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Welcome back to Lockdown Heat for everybody watching on YouTube now is a great chance to hit that
subscribe button. Make sure that you never miss an episode. The heat play, the Lakers tonight,
and we know that this could be potentially Lebron's last game in Miami. I have some stats that I
want to share with you, David, and also have his games as an enemy in Miami ranked that I want to
get to here in a second. But look, we don't know if this was Lebron's last year for sure. This could
be, you could play another year. I tend to think that he's going to play another year, but where are
you at on Lebron and the way that his career has gone as long as it has and he's kind of
put together the career that he's put up and that we might be watching the very end of it.
Yeah, I think he's coming back to. I think given Lebron's personality, where he ranks
among the greatest players in NBA history, he feels like the type of player who would want to
get the recognition that I think he's due and he deserves. We haven't seen a farewell to
her really since 2019 when Durkin Dwayne both retired and knowing that those players were
on their way out. These were all-time greats, beloved by many. Certainly Dwayne was beloved
in Miami and he deserved everything, all the attention he got as far as the last dance.
But I think Lebron is such a polarizing figure, but such an important figure in NBA history.
I know that there are fans of the game who don't consider him to be the number one and you have
the debate between him and Jordan as far as the greatest player of all time, even Lakers fans,
who probably gravitate more towards Kobe Bryant over Lebron James because of everything that he
meant to that franchise. But there's no denying that Lebron is one of the best players in NBA
history. And so he deserves to get that kind of recognition. And if you're a fan and you have an
opportunity to go watch the Lakers, maybe it's not the same kind of juice as a different matchup,
you know, with the heat kind of struggling and the Lakers kind of, well, I wouldn't say floundering,
but kind of hard to define a little bit. You know, this is Lucas' team now. Lebron is no longer
the superstar he once was. He's still an incredible figure within context of the NBA, but he's not
the best player in that team. Something that he has been for the previous 20 seasons of his career.
But to watch him play one last time, I think he deserves that. I think he's earned that because
he is that kind of a player that shaped NBA history by a large margin. And so to be able to go see
his final game is an incredible honor if you can do it. And I think it's an interesting thing to be
able to welcome him back here to Miami, where he did help bring two championships and four trips
to the NBA finals. Like, there's no denying how important he was to this franchise and his role
there. I know a lot of people are soured at 2014 and the way he left, but that doesn't change what
he was able to accomplish in their four years. And he was here. Still my favorite four years. Oh,
2006 is pretty great. 2003 to 2004 was also really great with Dwayne Wade as a rookie. But I mean,
nothing compares to the big three, the Beatles, all of that. Nothing compares to that. And it's
hard to escape those memories and those feelings when you're watching LeBron, especially at this time.
We don't know for sure that this isn't his final year. You and I agree. I think LeBron has at
least one more game in Miami next year when it probably will be his last year. Or maybe he's playing
in Miami for a bunch of home games. Maybe he's playing for the heat.
Nice. That's great. That'd be great. I know people won't want that, but I could think of that
thing. I don't like. I don't want to talk to those people. And you know what? I'll call those
people out. You can tell me that you LeBron or what is the loser? Whatever you want to call him.
LeChoke. LeChoke. Whatever you want to call him. You want to call him a traitor for leaving
24 fine. You will not be keeping that energy if he signs with the heat this summer. And that
is fine. That is your prerogative. But I'm just calling it right now. Anyway, some stats for LeBron
in Miami over the course of his career to really put some of this stuff into context here.
This will be his 24th game in Miami. Now you could argue that LeBron, that Miami is LeBron's
house of horse, right? LeBron is six and 17 all time in Miami. Six and 17 all time. Now he has
played well six and 17 all time in Miami as an opponent. I want to be very clear about that.
Obviously, it's a way better when he was playing for the heat and those games in Miami or home
games for him. He has scored 30 plus 10 times in Miami, 40 plus three times. And he did score 51
points once, which brings me to my rankings that I want to share with you. I went back. I looked
at all the games LeBron ever played against the heat in Miami as an opponent. And I put together my
top five enemy LeBron games ranked. Are you ready David? Absolutely. Number five. November 18th,
2018. LeBron's first year with the Lakers. LeBron scored 51. It was that 51 point game that I
just talked about. 51 points on a 39 win heat team that had had to add Jimmy Butler that next
offseason. He scored 51 on the heat on 61% shooting. This was still very much LeBron James
at the peak of his powers. He scored 51 against the heat starting lineup that combined for 62.
He almost outscored the heat's whole starting lineup by himself. The obvious next question is
what was that starting lineup? Well, I have it for you. It was Josh Richardson, Wayne Ellington,
Rodney Magruder, Justice Winslow, and Hassan Whiteside. So now all of a sudden this fact that LeBron
almost outscored that starting lineup isn't as impressive anymore, but that was a rough year.
Like I said, that was the team that was that one 39 games and they were forced to go and
add Jimmy Butler that next offseason. Yeah, impressive, impressive win there for the Lakers,
but I mean, that was an incredible heat team like they were obviously struggling and
like that was that was 2018-19. Yeah. Okay, so that was Wayne's last year then.
Wayne coming off the bench. Yeah, he was. He was coming off the bench too then. Okay, interesting.
All right. You know, heck of a performance there. I don't remember that game very much,
but I do remember that season kind of being floundering. So no Deon Waiters, obviously he was going
through injury issues to recovering from his ankle. Goran Drogage, I think Miss Time as well.
Yeah. It was right in the beginning of the year. Yeah, that was that was tough. That was LeBron kind
of making a statement as a member of the Lakers that for a year. He later went on to miss a bunch of
time that I think the growing strain towards the end of that season, but there was back out or something
and then there were the whole rumors that he was taking some kind of supplement or something like
that because he took weeks off. Like that was the first time he had missed significant time in his
whole career. Right. I think people were calling him List Aeroid, you know, Aeroid's or something
like that. Like they're always so lemicky because of the championship and the Orlando bubble. Like
the nicknames have been top tier for us. Not really. They just added love to the award. I know.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. All right. So that is the most recent game on this list.
Wow. Really? Yeah. We are going we're going to now the second most recent game and we got to go
all the way back to 2010 for this. So we are going in the time machine on this list. So buckle up.
Uh, number four on this list January 25th, 2010. This was LeBron's last game in Miami before the
decision. And I think most people remember that last game between the heat and the calves before
LeBron's decision right towards the end of that regular season. That game was in Cleveland.
And we all remember that LeBron Wade battle. But this was the last LeBron game in Miami before
the decision January 25th, 2010. The heat lost by one to a really good calves team. They lost 92 to
91. And that was in and of itself sort of a win. Remember how bad that heat team was and how good
that that that calves team was legitimately good. They were in the playoffs. Uh, Duane Wade carried
the heat with 32 points on 10 of 21 shooting 10 rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block.
LeBron at 32 points on 9 of 23 shootings. So not as efficient as DeWade in that game.
Night rebounds for us this. I thought Duane Wade outplayed LeBron James in that game. It was a very
memorable one. Yeah, I don't have any recollection of the game. You know, I was with you. Um,
well, we didn't really know that the decision was about to happen. So I guess maybe in retro
spec that it ended up being a lot more meaningful than it was than it felt at the time. Yeah, I know.
I don't think I don't think there were any rumors about LeBron. I think most people considered
LeBron would stay. Uh, yeah, I think that was the assumption. Yeah, and certainly not Miami as a
destination. Yeah. Um, number three on my list, March 2nd, 2009. Maybe Duane Wade's best season.
LeBron and Wade head to head. There's a theme here. If you're not or you haven't caught on yet. Uh,
LeBron and Wade head to head LeBron finished with 42 points on 13 of 21 shooting eight rebounds
for us this in 44 minutes. Wade had 41 points on 16 of 30 shooting nine assists seven rebounds seven
steals and a block in 40 minutes. The calves won this game by seven after LeBron had 12 points in
the fourth quarter. Uh, the calves rallied to win this game after the heat led through three quarters.
Mo Williams had 17 points for the four in the fourth quarter for the calves, which really shows you
how bad that heat team was. And again, maybe one of Duane Wade's best seasons of not his best season
for a really bad heat team that obviously needed LeBron a couple of years later. But, um,
that was, that was a tremendous head to head between LeBron and Duane Wade. Uh, and, uh,
the seven steals there. I really want to highlight because people forget how good defensively
Duane Wade was, especially these first few years of his career. Like the first seven or eight
years of his career, he was incredible way better than James Harden ever was defensively. Oh,
come on. That's not even a question. Like I can't believe I think Duane Wade is closer to the
Kobe Bryant part of the conversation than the James Harden part of the conversation.
He was a game changer in a way that James was not like, like Harden was a heck of an offensive
player, defining one in many ways because of his ability to draw free throws and, uh,
his three-point shooting, uh, far superior to Duane's and that regard, yeah. But I mean,
the fact that Duane was able to swing games the way he was because of his defense and his
offense despite not having a reliable three-point shot, that's, I think to me, it's almost even more
impressive. I would bet James Harden has never had seven steals on a basketball game.
That's its high school. Number two, April 9th, 2004. Rookie Duane Wade versus Rookie LeBron James.
Now the first two games between them is rookies. Not very good. Not very neither score 20
in their first meeting. Duane Wade came off the bench for one of those games. But by April of
their rookie years, it felt like both guys had sort of figured things out and both teams had
figured things out. In this game, LeBron, 24 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds, Duane Wade, 20 points,
7 assists, 5 steals on 50% shooting. It was the first time that we really felt like these head-to-head
matchups could be special between LeBron and Duane Wade. Um, number one on this list.
It's, I think if we were going to do a number one, if we were going to do a list on Duane Wade
versus LeBron James games, or even just LeBron games, LeBron games against the heat, not necessarily
in Miami. Number one on the list would be April 1st, 2006. That was the classic Duane versus LeBron
game where Wade scored 44 points on 18 of 36 shooting, 9 assists, 8 rebounds, two steals, a block,
in 43 minutes. LeBron had 47 points in that game. The cab is 1-106-99, but that was the moment
where you were like, oh, Duane Wade is just as good as this guy. But that game was played in Cleveland
that April 1st, 2006 game. But three weeks earlier, we got the Wade versus LeBron classic thriller
Prequel. March 12th, 2006. Wade had 30, this game in Miami. Wade had 35 points on 11 of 26 shooting,
9 rebounds, 7 assists, two steals, a block, in 45 minutes. LeBron had 47 points on 27 shots,
7 rebounds, 4 assists, the heat won this game. 98 to 82, they blew them out. David, but what I
really want to focus on here, not just the points in the way that these guys scored and how efficient
that they were every time that these guys met around this time. The point totals were crazy,
but they were always shooting like 50 to 60% from the field. Their efficiency was so off the charts.
I also love the fact that they always played 40 plus minutes, sometimes 45 minutes in these games.
They really put it out there. I mean, it was a thriller because of what they were doing on the court.
It was also a thriller because when you went to a game with that that featured LeBron and Wade
going head to head, they were going to be going head to head for most of those 48 minutes. Like,
you were going to it was such a treat to watch these games. Absolutely. They were picking each other
up defensively. They were attacking basket for basket. It was so much excitement there. But which
game was the the Dwayne slam over Anderson Barrage? How do you remember that one? Was that in Miami?
Yeah, I think so. I think so because it was the it was the big crowd reaction after that one. But
I don't know if it was during one of those matchups that you talked about or not. I was just
considering that. But yeah, it was November 12, 2009. So yeah, that that actually could have been
up there. That was more of a Wade moment than a LeBron moment. I was kind of trying to keep
the LeBron moments. But yeah, no doubt. I mean, incredible games there throughout his career
against Miami, especially earlier on. Maybe not so much the games when he when he joined Cleveland,
it felt like he was out for a couple of those and they lost some of the luster. When you rejoined
Cleveland? Yeah, when you rejoined Cleveland in 2014. But it's it's always been fun to match up.
Does he still get boot? I'm trying to recall the last time he was in town and I don't remember
if he gets good or not. I don't think he does. I don't think he does. I think people of it's
it's so long. I mean, it's almost. It's 12 years. Yeah, that he left. It's pretty crazy.
I want to I want to hear from fans like if you do listen to or watch this show before
the game on Thursday. And if you plan on going to the games, you you want to see LeBron like I
want to know what his how he's considered by heat fans because it's I think it's such an interesting
question given that everything that's passed over the last 12 years and what he's meant to this
game. Like do you appreciate him now that it's been over a decade or do you still feel the
feeling jilted by his departure in 2014? It's a great question. And if I could just give
some unsolicited advice, don't boo. Like just don't like just just whatever you think of LeBron,
he is and we know the the best or the set. We don't even have to have the Michael Jordan debate.
He's one of the two greatest players of all time. How often do you get to see one of those
in front of you? Right? And so treat this as if it were Michael Jordan's last game in Miami.
Right? And that doesn't I'm not trying to compare LeBron to Michael Jordan. I don't want to do that.
But I'm just saying like this is greatness. This is history. And just like coming from somebody who
has sort of let fandom kind of, you know, ugly their perception of moments that are happening,
you know, when when I was a child, and I kind of wish that I didn't do that. Just just be there
and appreciate it or at least watch it on TV and just try to appreciate like what we have seen.
And the fact that so much of his career happened here, like you could argue maybe the most important
parts of his career happened here in Miami. That's a really cool thing that a lot of franchises
get to say, right? It's Miami. It's Cleveland. And it's the Lakers. And the Lakers don't even get
to say it as much as Miami and the and the Cavs get to do. So yeah, I just just just try to appreciate
it because me we don't think it is his last game. But if it is, right? Even if it's on his last
season, he could be hurt, you know, next year when the Lakers are in Miami, right? He was hurt
the first time that these teams played in Los Angeles or the season. So this very well could be his
last game in Miami. So if you're going to be there great, come say hi. If not, watch it on TV and
just try to appreciate it because this is this is greatness, man. This is history. Thanks for tuning in
today. Locked on heat. Make sure you subscribe, fall locked on heat. So you get all the latest episodes.
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Locked On Heat - Daily Podcast On The Miami Heat

Locked On Heat - Daily Podcast On The Miami Heat

Locked On Heat - Daily Podcast On The Miami Heat
