LeBron James and the Miami Heat are your 2012 NBA Champions.
Miami came to play tonight knowing that they were one win away from being crowned as Champions, behind a LeBron James Triple-Double with 26 points, Chris Bosh adding 24 points and a surprise 23 point performance by Mike Miller the Heat emerged victorious. This series was a lot different than last year’s Finals loss to the Dallas Mavericks, this Heat team showed that they were able to not only perform well on the biggest stage – but showed they were able to close out the back-and-forth games in the process.
In the best-of-seven series that was claimed in five, there were many big plays and players along the way, two huge games from Shane Battier and an outstanding game four performance from Mario Chalmers helped the Heat stay alive. LeBron James suffered from leg cramps in game four but played through them and shot a laser three down the barrel to give the Heat a 97-94 lead that they never lost, even throughout game five.
Before the game James said that the cramps weren’t bothering him and he was ready to go. He also said that he knew it was a pressure packed game, as the Heat looked to close out the Thunder in a win-or-go-home situation. “It’s a must-win for them, but it’s a must-win for us, too, and as a leader of this team, I’ll approach it that way. And hopefully I won’t have to be dealing with cramps.”
The cramps didn’t appear to bother him as they pulled out the demanding win over the Thunder, who pulled their starters from the game with about four minutes left in the game with the writing on the wall.
The team said that they viewed tonight’s game as a game seven, just as they approached game four. The strategy worked well for them in the blowout 121-106 win, the only game of the series that was completely one-sided.
LeBron’s performance paved the way tonight, as he added yet another notch to his resume that many critics had said he might never add, an NBA Title.
When asked by Doris Burke what this meant to him after the clock hit zeros, LeBron said “It means everything, I made a difficult decision to leave Cleveland, but I knew what the future had in store for me here”
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OCNN Report Sports Columnist – Justin Arbogast @NFLGuy_SK
