Why the Miami Heat NEED to Escape the Play-In & LeBron James' Possible Last Game in Miami

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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.

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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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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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