DALLAS — As expected, they spoke at length.
Following that giant question mark of a performance from LeBron James in Game 4, he and Dwyane Wade, whose rooms are directly across the hall from each other in the team hotel, had the discussion everyone else wishes they were in on.
What happened? Where was the real LeBron James? Why now? What now?
All of it probably came up.
It’s what came out of it that’s important, though.
“Obviously, he feels like he let me down,” said Wade, who had the reverse version of this conversation while he was struggling to assist LeBron in the Eastern Conference finals. “I understand he’s going to respond. So we just talked about the moment more than anything.
“I’m not worried about him. Eventually, he’s going to do something amazing, and it’s going to put us over the top.”
There it is. The one man who would benefit most from LeBron rebounding — who happens to be the same man who would be hurt most by another detached performance from LeBron — has no doubt Game 5 will feature a different version of LeBron James.
Wade has been by his side long enough to know the odds are in his favor, first of all. He has seen way more of the spectacular LeBron at the end of games in these playoffs than he has the ordinary LeBron.
Wade knows there’s a pattern on this team among the Big 3, one that often features tremendous bounce-back efforts, with none being more dramatic than the ones involving LeBron.
But more importantly, he understands what was missing from LeBron in that out-of-character performance.
It’s not just that LeBron and Wade have trouble coexisting offensively at times, which is an unavoidable truth. There is no truth to any insane theories that LeBron was pouting because this was Wade’s series to shine, or that he was making a point by sitting back and watching. It’s not even the case of a player whose confidence is waning or who is in some sort of significant slump.
Wade realizes that what happened in that historically bad LeBron performance was essentially a terribly timed letup.
For 38 minutes of this NBA finals game, it appeared the Heat would be more than fine without LeBron at his aggressive best. It appeared, because Miami was able to take a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter with LeBron playing the role of facilitator, that he could continue to play that way down the stretch and the Heat would still come out on top.
And in those last 10 minutes or so, when the Heat needed LeBron to become the same guy who furiously closed out the Bulls with a surprising shooting touch and finished off the Celtics with pure energy and athleticism, he never flipped the switch.
Not because he wasn’t capable, but just because it didn’t happen.
Something inexplicable, even by LeBron himself, overcame him that never allowed him to resort to those familiar heroic measures.
“The game of basketball is so weird,” Wade said. “One moment you can be on a high, you can be playing unbelievable. The next second you can feel like you haven’t played basketball in years.
“You just got to stay with it.”
That last part, that’s essentially what LeBron didn’t do. He didn’t stay with it. He got caught in a black hole of passivity and couldn’t break free.
He didn’t choke. He didn’t fold. He just didn’t change his approach. And the Heat paid for it.
That’s why a rebound game today seems so reasonable. Because this was mainly about effort, about mind-set, about aggressiveness instead of some difficult balancing act.
The Heat doesn’t need to break out a new set of unused plays. LeBron doesn’t need to steal opportunities away from Wade. Chris Bosh doesn’t need to scale back his offense for the sake of LeBron.
LeBron just needs to be himself. Be the guy who looked like he wanted to punish the rim in Game 3. Be the guy who trusts his jump shot even though nobody else in the building does. Be the guy who jumps to embarrass opponents instead of the guy that jumps to pass and ends up traveling. Be the guy who owns Shawn Marion instead of the guy who looks frustrated when Marion scores with an awkward flip shot.
Erik Spoelstra knows if LeBron just played at Wade’s energy level in Game 4 he wouldn’t be subjected to everything he has been since it ended.
And that’s why he knows LeBron’s recovery doesn’t require many complicated tricks.
“He doesn’t have to overthink this,” Spoelstra said.
Everyone else is doing that for LeBron. Even DeShawn Stevenson has been analyzing LeBron’s performance.
“I don’t know what was happening (Tuesday) night, but I just feel like, playing against him all these years, that wasn’t himself,” said Stevenson, who’s being painted as a trash-talker in this scenario but is really just saying what the rest of us were thinking. “It was very surprising. I think he just kind of faded out. I don’t know if it’s because Dwyane Wade was playing well.”
LeBron does know what went wrong. He wasn’t himself for too long a period. So he plans on changing that immediately.
“I think it’s that time,” he said. “I think it’s time that I try to get myself going, individually.”
Most people are wondering why he didn’t say that to himself at, say, the five-minute mark of the fourth quarter. But as LeBron said Wednesday, this isn’t the Super Bowl. It’s not a one-game, win-or-go-home scenario. At least not yet.
So Game 5 is as good a time as any for him to return to his aggressive roots.
Maybe then, the next time LeBron and Wade have one of those heart-to-hearts, it will be on a parade float rolling down Biscayne Boulevard.
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