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Speaker 1: Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Van Duel. Here at
Speaker 1: the Volume, we have a very special episode for you
Speaker 1: guys today, continuing our coverage of Lebron James passing Gareem
Speaker 1: Abdul Jabbard's become the NBA's all time leading score We
Speaker 1: talked a lot the night that Lebron wrote the record
Speaker 1: about his scoring development in the way that he rounded
Speaker 1: out his skill set to become the player that he
Speaker 1: needed to be to be capable of winning four championships
Speaker 1: the way that he did. And so what I thought
Speaker 1: would be a lot of fun today is to zoom
Speaker 1: in on five specific games, five specific moments in Lebron's
Speaker 1: career that I thought demonstrated him meeting those milestones that
Speaker 1: he had to reach in his scoring development. So what
Speaker 1: today is going to be is the top five scoring
Speaker 1: moments of Lebron James's career. So without any further ado,
Speaker 1: let's get started. I'm gonna take you guys back to
Speaker 1: two thousand seven in the Eastern Conference Finals in Game five,
Speaker 1: as the Cleveland Cavaliers went on the road in a
Speaker 1: two two tied series to play the Detroit Pistons, the
Speaker 1: same Detroit Pistons team that won a championship in two
Speaker 1: thousand four and made it to the NBA Finals again
Speaker 1: in two thousand five, and made it I can't remember
Speaker 1: exactly how many, but they made to a bunch of
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference Finals consecutively, one of the dominant Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: teams of that era, and Lebron James was just twenty
Speaker 1: two years old, And you guys might remember this as
Speaker 1: the game where he scored twenty five straight points to
Speaker 1: secure the win, eventually sending the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: He also scored twenty nine of their last thirty There
Speaker 1: was like a random Drew Gooden free throw mixed in there,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, and he finished the game with
Speaker 1: forty eight points, nine rebounds, and seven assists. But I
Speaker 1: looked at this as the game that clearly demonstrated Lebron's
Speaker 1: foundational skill, which was that nobody could keep him from
Speaker 1: getting to the ring. Every all time great NBA player
Speaker 1: has to be well rounded. You have to build out
Speaker 1: the rest of your skill set to add that versatility
Speaker 1: that makes you tougher to be in the playoffs. But
Speaker 1: every single one of those all time great players has
Speaker 1: a foundational skill, that one thing that they do better
Speaker 1: than everyone else, and that is their most reliable ability.
Speaker 1: Whether that's with you know, Shaquille O'Neal, just his overwhelming
Speaker 1: size and strength, or for Steph Curry the fact that
Speaker 1: he was the best jump shooter to ever play the game.
Speaker 1: And for Lebron James, it was simply that nobody could
Speaker 1: keep him from getting to the rim at six ft
Speaker 1: nine and two seventy pounds or whatever it is he was,
Speaker 1: and with his freak athleticism, I thought he was the
Speaker 1: best athlete in the league when he was younger. No
Speaker 1: one was capable of keeping him in front. And this
Speaker 1: game was such a great example of that. He had
Speaker 1: too massive dunks to send the game to overtime in regulation,
Speaker 1: and then obviously the game winner driving past Chauncey Billup.
Speaker 1: So let's take a look at some footage. Another opportunity
Speaker 1: on the Cavaliers by water back stuff. Here we are.
Speaker 1: The score is eighty seven, Detroit's in front. There's about
Speaker 1: thirty six seconds left, and Lebron is at the top
Speaker 1: of the key and he's isolating Jason Maxiel. Now, Jason
Speaker 1: Maxiell was the player that the Pistons tried to put
Speaker 1: on Lebron in this situation because he had a better
Speaker 1: chance of matching Lebron's size and strength. But you're gonna
Speaker 1: see the Pistons try a couple of different things to
Speaker 1: try to keep him away from the rim. So let's
Speaker 1: take a look. So as Lebron is getting a head
Speaker 1: of steam. Noticed, first of all, he's starting back at
Speaker 1: the Pistons logo. When you give yourself more of a
Speaker 1: head of steam, it's harder for someone to contain you,
Speaker 1: as opposed to starting at the three point line when
Speaker 1: you're starting from a full stop. Now, Lebron's gonna hit
Speaker 1: Jason Maxio with a dribble combination a double move to
Speaker 1: get to the rim. He's gonna start with the ball
Speaker 1: in his right hand, and watch how when he crosses
Speaker 1: over through his legs to the left, how he opens
Speaker 1: up his shoulders and his body to the left, and
Speaker 1: you can actually see Jason maxie hop a little bit
Speaker 1: to his right to try to contain that move, and
Speaker 1: then Lebron's gonna whip the crossover back over to the right,
Speaker 1: and maxie is completely out of position, and now he's
Speaker 1: loading up for a jackhammer dunk with his right hand.
Speaker 1: Now the very next possession of Chauncey Billips goes down
Speaker 1: and hits the three and puts the Pistons back up
Speaker 1: by two. So the Pistons are up nine out of
Speaker 1: the James Sutton steps. Now you're gonna see Drew Gooden
Speaker 1: come up to set a screen on Jason Maxiell so
Speaker 1: he can get switched on to Tashaun Prince. Now, Tashaun
Speaker 1: Prince is one of the better perimeter defenders of this era,
Speaker 1: with a ton of length on the ball. You might
Speaker 1: remember him famously having massive defensive plays in his NBA
Speaker 1: playoff career. But he gives a lot of weight and
Speaker 1: strength up to Lebron. So Lebron gets the switch, and
Speaker 1: now he's gonna pull the ball out to the right wing.
Speaker 1: And notice once again he dribbles all the way back
Speaker 1: out to about forty feet so he can get that
Speaker 1: head of steam. Now, as you can see, Tashaun Prince
Speaker 1: is looking around and he sees he doesn't have any
Speaker 1: help on his right side. So what he's gonna do
Speaker 1: is he's gonna try to funnel him to the left
Speaker 1: and hopes that Rashid Wallace will be able to help
Speaker 1: him at the rim. But in the process, he kind
Speaker 1: of opens up his left shoulder with Lebron driving to
Speaker 1: his right, and Lebron is so big and strong that
Speaker 1: he's just gonna blow through that shoulder with absolutely no
Speaker 1: resistance and dunks of basketball. Again, one little note there,
Speaker 1: you can see Rashid Wallace unwilling to help off of
Speaker 1: Daniel Marshall in the corner. We're gonna talk about this
Speaker 1: when we get further down the list, but that's another
Speaker 1: characteristic of Lebron's game. Defensive players are are terrified to
Speaker 1: help because they believe he will beat them with the
Speaker 1: past every single time. So Lebron gets these back to
Speaker 1: back dunks and the game goes overtime. Now, as we remember,
Speaker 1: from this point forward through the rest of overtime, Lebron
Speaker 1: puts on a ridiculous shot making display from the perimeter
Speaker 1: to really carry the Cavalier's offense through the two overtime periods.
Speaker 1: But we're not gonna focus on that right now because
Speaker 1: it wasn't really reliable. This was a phase of Lebron's
Speaker 1: career when he was very streaky, and uh, we're gonna
Speaker 1: get to it later. But it took years and years
Speaker 1: more of relentless hard work from Lebron for him to
Speaker 1: build out the jump shot to the point where it
Speaker 1: was reliable. But let's pass forward to the end of
Speaker 1: this game. So it's double o t one oh seven
Speaker 1: to one oh seven. Look, Cavaliers. Notice this time they
Speaker 1: put Chauncey Billups on Lebron James and that was not
Speaker 1: a switch that was to start to play. My guest
Speaker 1: there is Chauncey probably asked for the opportunity to try
Speaker 1: to disrupt Lebron's handle once again. Lebron is starting out
Speaker 1: at the Detroit Pistons logo out at half court so
Speaker 1: that he can get a running start. Billips is once
Speaker 1: again shading his right hand, this time trying to funnel
Speaker 1: him towards the help. But Lebron has such a head
Speaker 1: of steam when he beats Chauncey off the drible that
Speaker 1: they just can't even stop him when he knifes his
Speaker 1: way through the lane. And once again you can see
Speaker 1: Rashid Wallace jumping out to Daniel Marshall to try to
Speaker 1: stop a pass. One of their note on this play
Speaker 1: that I thought was super interesting. When you're being guarded
Speaker 1: by smaller guards and you're a bigger player, you never
Speaker 1: want to play around with the basketball. That's not your advantage.
Speaker 1: Your advantage is your strength and your athleticism. So I
Speaker 1: liked how Lebron was simple there and just went to
Speaker 1: the left as opposed to trying to do a dribble
Speaker 1: move like he did against some of the bigger, slower players.
Speaker 1: But Lebron wins the game with this layup, and once
Speaker 1: again I thought this was the foundational moment of Lebron's
Speaker 1: career where he figured out that absolutely nobody in the
Speaker 1: NBA could keep him from getting to the rim. Now
Speaker 1: you're gonna see as as we move on to this
Speaker 1: next clip. We're moving on to number four, which is
Speaker 1: Lebron's game against the Spurs in two thousand thirteen. But
Speaker 1: the Spurs, they understood that that was Lebron's foundational strength,
Speaker 1: and they focused all their attention on taking just that
Speaker 1: away in the hopes that his weaknesses elsewhere in his
Speaker 1: skill set would be what burns him. But unfortunately, at
Speaker 1: this point, Lebron had figured that out as well. So
Speaker 1: number four, we're moving up to two thousand thirteen, Game
Speaker 1: seven of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs,
Speaker 1: and in this entire series, Gregg Popovich, it was almost
Speaker 1: funny and weird how much they were daring Lebron to shoot.
Speaker 1: They would go under ball screens. They have Kawhile Leonard
Speaker 1: go under ball screens below the free throw line. They
Speaker 1: would have you know when and when he would get
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan on a switch or something along those lines,
Speaker 1: they'd have him back all the way off and just
Speaker 1: dare Lebron to shoot. And this was the series or
Speaker 1: the NBA found out that you could no longer just
Speaker 1: concede jump shots to Lebron James, and if you did,
Speaker 1: he would burn you. We found out after the series
Speaker 1: and some of the postgame interviews and some of the
Speaker 1: postgame articles that the many talented writers to cover the
Speaker 1: NBA put out that when Lebron was adventuring around the
Speaker 1: other countries around the world for Nike and doing all
Speaker 1: these charitable events and all these different things. That he
Speaker 1: brought his shooting trainer with him, and every single day
Speaker 1: he would work on his jump shot, even during the
Speaker 1: offseason while he was traveling and doing all of his
Speaker 1: obligations for Nike and and all of his other sponsorship deals.
Speaker 1: That Lebron broke down after that NBA Finals, just the
Speaker 1: sheer amount of relentless work that he put in to
Speaker 1: improve his jump shot. I talk all the time with
Speaker 1: young players. There's two different kinds of shooters in the world.
Speaker 1: There are shooters and there are makers. And the difference
Speaker 1: between a shooter and a maker is not like a
Speaker 1: natural ability as much as it is the relentless work.
Speaker 1: Whenever you hear of a streaky shooter, it usually means
Speaker 1: that behind the scenes, they're not putting in the requisite work.
Speaker 1: And you have to day after day for years and
Speaker 1: years and years, put in thousands and thousands of reps
Speaker 1: to become a competent jump shooter, and the progress just
Speaker 1: so slow. You might have to make a five hunter
Speaker 1: jump shots a day for three months just to even
Speaker 1: see the slightest bit of improvement. And that's why it
Speaker 1: does take years and years and years and so there's
Speaker 1: a specific moment that I want to point out to
Speaker 1: you guys where you can see that fulfillment happen for
Speaker 1: Lebron James. But let's start with the shots themselves. So
Speaker 1: here we are. We're in the third quarter and the
Speaker 1: Spurs are up fifty seven to fifty six. Balano off
Speaker 1: the screen, James will try another drain, puts it in
Speaker 1: Lebron James for three putter up the game. Chris Bosh
Speaker 1: and Lebron James are setting a double pick and pop
Speaker 1: for ray Allen. And as ray Allen is coming off
Speaker 1: the screen, notice Kawhi Leonard is sitting all the way
Speaker 1: down at the elbow to contain ray Allen as he's
Speaker 1: coming over the top of the screen, knowing that he's
Speaker 1: giving a shot to Lebron. But that fits within the
Speaker 1: Spurs scheme in this series. They were a percent willing
Speaker 1: to give Lebron wide open shots all series long, and
Speaker 1: to the Spurs credit up through Game six, it worked.
Speaker 1: They were up in the series three games to two,
Speaker 1: almost one in Game six and Lebron did not shoot
Speaker 1: the ball well. But in this series it all came together.
Speaker 1: Ray Allen makes the kick pass back to Lebron confidently
Speaker 1: rises up and knocks down the three. We move on.
Speaker 1: I believe this is about a minute later, where at
Speaker 1: the three and a half minute mark. Now the heat
Speaker 1: are up fifty seven, catch and shoot. Playoff your instinction,
Speaker 1: trust your skill level, Leonard daring him Ray Allen and
Speaker 1: James again, Look how fall up they're playing. He'll try
Speaker 1: it again, Ron James matching this first play the five point.
Speaker 1: Lebron has the ball now Ray Alan is setting the
Speaker 1: ball screen on the screen. Notice Kawhi Leonard duck down
Speaker 1: like he's gonna go underneath the screen, which causes Lebron
Speaker 1: to pull back for three. Kauai offers a late contest,
Speaker 1: but it's way too late and Lebron knocks it down.
Speaker 1: These are wide open, dairy to shoot shots. Fast forward again.
Speaker 1: We're at there two minutes and ten second mark of
Speaker 1: the third quarter. Why just lead a seven? That was
Speaker 1: the Spurs in the opening minutes. Jane pulls off puts Anny,
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard. Look Lebron's dribbling at the logo and kawhile
Speaker 1: Leonard is sitting at the elbow. They are daring Lebron
Speaker 1: to shoot. Birdman comes to set the screen at the
Speaker 1: elbow and Kauai goes underneath the ball screen. Lebron just
Speaker 1: walks into a wide open twenty footer at the top
Speaker 1: of the key and knocks it down again. This was
Speaker 1: all by design because the Spurs expected him to miss
Speaker 1: these shots, but at this phase of Lebron's career he
Speaker 1: had become a reliable jump shooter. Fast forward a little
Speaker 1: bit further. We're at the five minute and forty six
Speaker 1: second mark of the fourth quarter. Shot clock to five.
Speaker 1: James puts it up, knocks it down. Here we are
Speaker 1: in the middle of the fourth quarter. Miami's up to
Speaker 1: seventy seven. Lebron's got Tim Duncan on a switch down
Speaker 1: in the right corner, and Tim Duncan is daring Lebron
Speaker 1: to shoot. Now, Lebron's gonna do what I call using
Speaker 1: a rhythm dribble to gain your rhythm going into a
Speaker 1: jump shot. A lot of times when a defender is
Speaker 1: conceding a jump shot to you, it gets in your
Speaker 1: head and so it's really hard just to rise up
Speaker 1: into a shot out of some sort of funky stand
Speaker 1: still dribble. So rhythm dribbles are what you can use
Speaker 1: to reset your rhythm and lean back on a shot
Speaker 1: you know you've practiced a lot, So, for instance, you
Speaker 1: don't ever practice just dribbling the ball up the floor
Speaker 1: and then elevating into a shot from a standstill. Every
Speaker 1: single time you shoot off the dribble, it's usually off
Speaker 1: of a dribble combination or a hard step to the
Speaker 1: left or a hard step to the rider, maybe a
Speaker 1: step back, and so using a rhythm dribble can set
Speaker 1: you into a situation where you can think back and go,
Speaker 1: I've made this shot hundreds of times in practice. So
Speaker 1: Lebron's gonna use a pound dribble through his legs from
Speaker 1: right to left to rise up into the shot. That
Speaker 1: sets his rhythm. When he goes into that shot, he's
Speaker 1: thinking to himself, I have made this pound dribble through
Speaker 1: my legs jump shot hundreds and hundreds of times. I
Speaker 1: can do that. He's setting his rhythm, getting his confidence
Speaker 1: to knock that shot down, hits it over. Tim Duncan
Speaker 1: same exact thing later on. Here we are four and
Speaker 1: a half minutes in. Miami's got the lead, Lebron's got
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan on a switch six to shoot James that's good.
Speaker 1: What he's gonna do here is just do a hard
Speaker 1: dribble to his left to elevate into a jump shot.
Speaker 1: He didn't need more separation. Tim Duncan was already conceding
Speaker 1: the shot, but that hard dribble just helped set Lebron's
Speaker 1: rhythm so that he felt confident rising into that shot.
Speaker 1: He knocks it down and then to end the game
Speaker 1: less than a minute left in the fourth quarter, Miami up.
Speaker 1: James pull us up, looks at end point lye thirty
Speaker 1: five for Lebron. James time out, say that Lebron's got
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard. We're gonna have Mario Chalmers come set the
Speaker 1: screen and Tony Parker is gonna do a hedge and recover.
Speaker 1: So he's gonna hop out on Lebron just to cause
Speaker 1: him to hesitate a little bit as he's coming off
Speaker 1: of that screen, and then he's gonna recover back out
Speaker 1: to Mario Chalmers. But Kawhi Leonard once again watches Lebron
Speaker 1: is coming off of the Tony Parker hedge. Look at
Speaker 1: this long step Kawhi Leonard takes back to the paint.
Speaker 1: It's not a long step to contest Lebron's jump shot.
Speaker 1: It's a long step back to the paint. There once
Speaker 1: again overplaying the paint and conceding a jump shot to Lebron.
Speaker 1: He rises, is up and knocks down the twenty foot
Speaker 1: or that effectively amounts to be the dagger to win
Speaker 1: Lebron's second NBA Championship. And one of my favorite moments
Speaker 1: in this video. If you watch, the camera stays live
Speaker 1: and and looks uh follows Lebron to the bench, and
Speaker 1: as he's going to the bench after he high fives
Speaker 1: a couple of coaches, you can see him just do
Speaker 1: a hard fist pump into his hand and he yells
Speaker 1: out something that sounds like yes or yeah. And what
Speaker 1: I love about that is, to me, that's the fulfillment
Speaker 1: of hard work, a leading to results. Lebron as a
Speaker 1: as a wealthy man, you know, traveling in his summers,
Speaker 1: it would be so easy for him to relax, It
Speaker 1: would be so easy for him to take it easy.
Speaker 1: But he paid his dues, you know, blood, sweat and
Speaker 1: tears for years and years and years to round out
Speaker 1: that jump shot into something that he could count on.
Speaker 1: And then suddenly, in a big moment when he absolutely
Speaker 1: needed it. It came through for him, and you got
Speaker 1: to see that fulfillment as an athlete. Those are just
Speaker 1: the moments that I appreciate the most, just seeing that
Speaker 1: hard work payoff and lead to something and it almost
Speaker 1: comes out as a nearly emotional type of response. Number four.
Speaker 1: This was Lebron finally discovering that teams could not ever
Speaker 1: concede jump shots to him and if they did that,
Speaker 1: he would make them pay. All right. Number three, We're
Speaker 1: gonna fast forward down to two thousand seventeen. This was
Speaker 1: Game three of the Eastern Conference first round series between
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Indiana Pacers. The Calves had
Speaker 1: gone up two games to none and they were going
Speaker 1: on the road to Indiana. That Game three on the
Speaker 1: road for a for a team down to oh is
Speaker 1: always one of the toughest games in the world to win.
Speaker 1: I always call it the buzz saw game because you're
Speaker 1: playing in front of your home crowd. Usually that team
Speaker 1: is the underdog. They feed off of that crowd energy
Speaker 1: to an absurd extent. And once again in this game,
Speaker 1: it played out like so many other game threes that
Speaker 1: I've seen an NBA history play out. The home team
Speaker 1: dominates throughout, but in the second half, Tyler actually benches
Speaker 1: both of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love because they weren't
Speaker 1: playing l and he closes the game with Lebron James
Speaker 1: and role players. This game, to me, is the best
Speaker 1: example of how Lebron's passing ability sets up his scoring opportunities.
Speaker 1: Throughout the NBA, you see scores deal with multiple defenders
Speaker 1: all over the floor, and oftentimes, for a defensive coach
Speaker 1: or for a defensive strategy, it makes the most sense
Speaker 1: to try to get the ball out of that guy's
Speaker 1: hands because chances are he's not going to consistently make
Speaker 1: the right play because he's looking to score. That's the
Speaker 1: way his his basketball brain works. But with Lebron James
Speaker 1: in particular, it's the exact opposite effect. Lebron is constantly
Speaker 1: looking to make the right read, like we were talking
Speaker 1: about in the Detroit Pistons game when Rashid Wallace kept
Speaker 1: refusing to leave Danielle Marshall to offer help on Lebron
Speaker 1: at the rint. Lebron is one of the most efficient
Speaker 1: scorers in NBA history, and I think a huge part
Speaker 1: of that is he's constantly on an Island attacking just
Speaker 1: his defender. But that's not just by design, that's not
Speaker 1: bad defense. It's simply because coaches are terrified to send
Speaker 1: help to Lebron because they know he will burn them
Speaker 1: every single time. And that's how this game started. Here's
Speaker 1: the play early in the fourth quarter. Paces are up
Speaker 1: four after his monster second quarter, and I'm sure he's
Speaker 1: glad to see one go through. Kevin. Yeah, up lection, tough,
Speaker 1: tough shot were getting along to their Lebron had been
Speaker 1: torching the Pacers with the past throughout this entire game.
Speaker 1: He actually finished the game with twelve assists. So there's
Speaker 1: one play in particular from this game that I think
Speaker 1: is the perfect encapsulation of this concept that I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: So in the middle of the fourth quarter, there's about
Speaker 1: six and a half minutes left and the game is tied.
Speaker 1: Paul George a chance at triple doubles together here till
Speaker 1: start way by shopperd. Here's Lebron James. He's got Coever
Speaker 1: on the way. He'll taking him out on the lead.
Speaker 1: Paul George is isolating himn chumppered at the free throw line,
Speaker 1: and Hemn Schumpered chumps him or strips him as he's
Speaker 1: rising up for a jump shot. Rest in piece to
Speaker 1: Fred McCloud, the play by play announcer for the Calves
Speaker 1: who coined that term. But it sparks a two on
Speaker 1: one fast rake with Lebron James with the basketball, Kyle
Speaker 1: Korver running the right wing, and monte Ella is standing
Speaker 1: between Lebron and the rim. Lebron all he does is
Speaker 1: right at the top of the key, hesitates with the
Speaker 1: hy dribble and peaks over at Kyle Korver, and when
Speaker 1: he does watch Montella is sprint out to Kyle Korver.
Speaker 1: Not not Oh, I'm scared of Lebron, let me get
Speaker 1: out of the way. Not not I I just don't.
Speaker 1: I'm not interested in taking a charge. Just literally, I
Speaker 1: think Lebron is gonna make this past to Kyle Korver,
Speaker 1: So he sprints out to Kyle Korver and concedes a
Speaker 1: wide open dunk to Lebron James going down the lane.
Speaker 1: Once again the fear of Lebron James and his willingness
Speaker 1: to make the right play at the expense of conceding
Speaker 1: a wide open dunk. Lebron finished the game with fort
Speaker 1: and twelve and closed out the Indiana Pacers on their
Speaker 1: home floor to go up three oh in the series
Speaker 1: without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, the ultimate offensive engine
Speaker 1: and NBA his three. All right, let's pass forward one
Speaker 1: year to two eight. Team. We're gonna look at two
Speaker 1: games for this one. But there's one specific play that
Speaker 1: I think kind of sets everything up. And then obviously,
Speaker 1: you guys remember what happens in Game two of this series.
Speaker 1: But we're going to two thousand eighteen in the Eastern
Speaker 1: Conference second round series between the Toronto Raptors and the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers had just come out of a
Speaker 1: seven game slug fest against the Indiana Pacers, and so
Speaker 1: they were exhausted and worn out. Everyone was generally low
Speaker 1: on the calves at this point in The Toronto Raptors
Speaker 1: were a heavy favorite to win this series, but they
Speaker 1: go into Game one and Lebron is having a tough
Speaker 1: shooting night, finished the game twelve for thirty from the field,
Speaker 1: only had twenty six points, but down the stretch he
Speaker 1: made every big play to send the game to overtime,
Speaker 1: and I believe j R. Smith ended up making most
Speaker 1: of the big shots in ot as the Calves ended
Speaker 1: up stealing Game one. But the biggest play of the game,
Speaker 1: it's one oh five to one oh three. Toronto has
Speaker 1: the leads the tend to shoot, yes, looks knocks it down.
Speaker 1: Lebron doesn't call for a ball screen. Lebron doesn't run
Speaker 1: any sort of action. And again, this is a big
Speaker 1: thing that I talked about. If you call ball screens,
Speaker 1: you're bringing a second defender up into the play. Lebron
Speaker 1: wanted nothing to do with that. He saw o g
Speaker 1: and and Obi and said, this is the guy that
Speaker 1: I'm attacking, backs him down to the right block and
Speaker 1: knocks down a fade away over his right shoulder. I
Speaker 1: look at this as the game where Lebron understood that
Speaker 1: he was confident enough in his skill set to go
Speaker 1: to the post in late game situations to create shots.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons why I'm such a big believer
Speaker 1: hurting your back to the basket is it's the easiest
Speaker 1: way to protect the basketball. It allows you to use
Speaker 1: your size and strength to pin the defender behind you. Now,
Speaker 1: good post defenders will slide their feet well and keep
Speaker 1: you in front and make you shoot over the top.
Speaker 1: But if you are taller and you are capable of
Speaker 1: knocking down shots over the top. Those post up fade
Speaker 1: away suddenly become the most unguardable shot in basketball. And
Speaker 1: Lebron James, in a game where they needed one basket
Speaker 1: to send it to ot, went to his unguardable shot,
Speaker 1: a fade away over his right shoulder on the right block,
Speaker 1: and he knocked it down and sent the game to ot,
Speaker 1: where the Cavs inevitably one. Then we fast forward to
Speaker 1: Game two, and as you guys remember this is the
Speaker 1: Lebronto game, time and time again. Down the stretch of
Speaker 1: the third quarter and in the fourth quarter, Lebron just
Speaker 1: hit a obnoxious variety of fade aways over Searchebaca, over
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry, over Pascal Siakum, over O g And and Noby.
Speaker 1: He was doing everything from every spot on the floor.
Speaker 1: There were side step jump shots, step back threes, turnarounds
Speaker 1: over his right shoulder, turnarounds over his left shoulder. There
Speaker 1: was even like a little one legged fade away at
Speaker 1: the free throw line, softly off the rim. It was
Speaker 1: almost like what clicked for him at the end of
Speaker 1: Game one became suddenly something he was so confident in
Speaker 1: that he just leaned on at time and time again
Speaker 1: down the floor. The most absurd thing about this particular
Speaker 1: game was that was the moment where you realized Lebron
Speaker 1: had reached a level of greatness and a level of confidence. Then,
Speaker 1: in a monumental, the important playoff game, a second round
Speaker 1: playoff game against the team that was favored to beat you,
Speaker 1: Lebron was just trying stuff, just challenging himself to make
Speaker 1: tougher and tougher shots. Lebron went to that tough shot
Speaker 1: in game one because he had to, this is his
Speaker 1: best chance to tie the game. He did it in
Speaker 1: game two because he wanted to demoralize and snatch the
Speaker 1: heart of the Toronto Raptors, and that's exactly what he
Speaker 1: did and one of the most impressive playoff feats of
Speaker 1: Lebron's career. He swept the Toronto Raptors as a heavy
Speaker 1: underdog without Kyrie Irving, without a legitimate costar on the team,
Speaker 1: and just a group of role players. But that was
Speaker 1: another monumental step that Lebron had to reach in his
Speaker 1: scoring development, trusting his back to the basket game to
Speaker 1: create shots in big moments, using his size alright number one.
Speaker 1: We're gonna fast forward to the year that Lebron won
Speaker 1: his most recent NBA Championship. One round after the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Clippers collapsed time and time again against this Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets team that was so good in the second halves
Speaker 1: of games. As they picked you apart with the Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray Nickela yokits, drible handoffs and reverse pick and rolls
Speaker 1: and normal pick and rolls and all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: Somebody had to be the guy who could finally stop
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets from coming back, and it was Lebron
Speaker 1: James with an assortment of pull up jump shots to
Speaker 1: execute the Denver Nuggets when Kawhi Leonard and Paul George
Speaker 1: could not. I've talked a lot about how pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooting is something that's somewhat unreliable. Kawhi Leonard and
Speaker 1: Paul George are professional pull up jump shooters. That's what
Speaker 1: they do better than everyone else in the world. But
Speaker 1: that is their foundational skill, and it failed them on
Speaker 1: that stage. What was so interesting about this moment to
Speaker 1: me for Lebron was that this is not even his
Speaker 1: foundational skill. As we talked about earlier, his foundational skill
Speaker 1: was his ability to get to the rim, or his
Speaker 1: ability to impact the game defensively with his athleticism. But
Speaker 1: what sets Lebron apart from the rest is he can
Speaker 1: do that shot making stuff just as well or almost
Speaker 1: as well as the guys who do it professionally as
Speaker 1: their foundational skill. Down the stretch of this game against Denver,
Speaker 1: Lebron made a ridiculous variety of complex pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots off of different footwork, off of different dribble combinations
Speaker 1: to put away the Denver Nuggets. And once again, this
Speaker 1: is not his foundational skill. I would argue in his career,
Speaker 1: it's been his weakest of his core skills. But even
Speaker 1: his weakest of his core skills is something that he
Speaker 1: does better than the vast majority of players in the NBA.
Speaker 1: So let's start to hear about the seven minute mark
Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter again, the Lakers are up three
Speaker 1: one in the series. If they win this game, they
Speaker 1: go to the NBA Finals. The Nuggets were on a
Speaker 1: big run in the second half of this game, just
Speaker 1: like they had been doing against every team that came
Speaker 1: before mill stap There's a lot of discussion about that call.
Speaker 1: When Davis came down on his heel, James gets into
Speaker 1: the pain, Grant right there with him all and James
Speaker 1: Lebron has Jeremy Grant off of a pick and roll
Speaker 1: and he's working to his left. He gets cut off
Speaker 1: excellent defense from Jeremy Grant as he funnels him away
Speaker 1: from the basket, but Lebron just elevates from the block,
Speaker 1: bading several feet towards the baseline and knocks down the
Speaker 1: jump shot. That is an incredibly difficult shot that salvages
Speaker 1: a possession that was defended extremely well by the Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 1: Here we go to the four minute mark, Lakers are
Speaker 1: up one. Now, James will shoot it up, but Chopper
Speaker 1: he's got it. Lebron James for the stair out of
Speaker 1: that Denver bench. Lebron's gonna run a pick and roll
Speaker 1: with Dwight Howard and Nikola Yokich is actually going to
Speaker 1: switch the pick and roll because Jeremy Grant gets caught
Speaker 1: on the screen. Dwight Howard has always been a very
Speaker 1: good screener, but on the play noticed Nikla Yoki just
Speaker 1: too far back. He takes a retreat step back to
Speaker 1: the semi circle and Lebron finds himself by himself at
Speaker 1: about one feet and he knocks down that pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot. I've always talked about in pick and roll,
Speaker 1: in order to beat different pick and roll coverages, you
Speaker 1: need to be able to punish a defender for going
Speaker 1: under a screen or a big man for sitting too
Speaker 1: far back by being able to rise up and knockdown
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots. Lebron did it there to put
Speaker 1: the Lakers is up by nine. Fast forward to the
Speaker 1: three minute mark. The Lakers are up one oh eight,
Speaker 1: one oh one to switch. Now Murray on Lebron James
Speaker 1: a hobbled Murray trying to stay with him as best
Speaker 1: to can Lebron. James hits one a. Lebron calls Danny
Speaker 1: Green to come set the screen, this time getting Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray on a switch. What I thought was so impressive
Speaker 1: about this play is when you're going against shorter defenders
Speaker 1: once again, like we talked about earlier, this is the
Speaker 1: time to turn your back to the basket. Notice Lebron
Speaker 1: is setting up the spin here. He's deliberately moving further
Speaker 1: to the right because he wants to create space so
Speaker 1: that he can elevate into the middle of the lane
Speaker 1: without Jeremy Grant becoming a problem. So notice he's gonna
Speaker 1: work down towards the right block to set up his
Speaker 1: spin move hard dribble. He's setting up his footwork for
Speaker 1: the spin. Does the pound dribble into a spin? Now,
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant is not any position where he could help.
Speaker 1: If you ran this exact same move but about ten
Speaker 1: feet further to the left where he originally had jam
Speaker 1: All on the switch, it would be much easier for
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant to run in there and dig or to
Speaker 1: help and then get back to Danny Green. Lebron sets
Speaker 1: up that turnaround it away over his right shoulder, which
Speaker 1: has been one of the bread and butter shots of
Speaker 1: his career, and knocks it down to put the Lakers
Speaker 1: up nine again very next possession. The first year of
Speaker 1: Lebron James, and they've missed six consecutive years with a
Speaker 1: drought James again, Oh, it's another one that Lebron James.
Speaker 1: Putting together a closing corner against the Nuggets. Lakers get
Speaker 1: a swap. It's gonna be another Dwight Howard pick and roll.
Speaker 1: This time. Jeremy Grant does a nice job quickly ducking
Speaker 1: under the pick and getting back onto Lebron, and Lebron
Speaker 1: is gonna go to Kevin Durant's bread and butter move,
Speaker 1: what we call the heavy pull up jump shot. He's
Speaker 1: gonna have the ball in his left hand and he's
Speaker 1: gonna squat down low. When he gets low to the ground,
Speaker 1: it's like you're setting up a dribble move. Most players,
Speaker 1: when they sit down low in the hesitation, they're looking
Speaker 1: to explode to their left. As a result, it gets
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant to also squat down to prepare to make
Speaker 1: a recovery step to his right, and that opens up
Speaker 1: just enough space for Lebron to elevate into a pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot that he knocks down. That's another element
Speaker 1: of variety and Lebron's shot making. And here we go
Speaker 1: to the Dagger Lakers up one, one oh three his
Speaker 1: hundred and sixteenth, which is number one. He'll take a
Speaker 1: three Lebron James Well another pick and roll with Dwight Howard.
Speaker 1: This time Nicola Yokich is going to hedge out to
Speaker 1: try to stop Lebron from turning that corner. When he does,
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant has to take a short step back to
Speaker 1: watch out for that lob and you can see Lebron
Speaker 1: pick up the basketball like he's going to throw that
Speaker 1: lob to Dwight Howard. Yoki sprints back to Dwight Howard,
Speaker 1: and in that split second, while Jeremy Grant is too
Speaker 1: far low, Lebron rises up and knocks down the shot
Speaker 1: to send the Lakers to the NBA Finals. So Lebron
Speaker 1: always had those foundational skills. He had that ability to
Speaker 1: get to the rim that he discovered in two thousand
Speaker 1: and seven, and then from his time in high school,
Speaker 1: he was always a basketball player that had a natural
Speaker 1: feel for finding his teammates. It's almost like an order
Speaker 1: of operations in his head. He's always looking to make
Speaker 1: the right play. But as you saw over the years,
Speaker 1: because of limitations in the supporting cast and because of
Speaker 1: his limitations as a jump shooter, teams found ways to
Speaker 1: beat Lebron by packing the paint and letting him make
Speaker 1: the right play and have guys miss shots and have
Speaker 1: him miss jump shots on their way to beating Lebron
Speaker 1: James teams. But over the years he rounded out that
Speaker 1: skill set with everything you need from that specific position,
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooting off the dribble, as you're operating
Speaker 1: with a live dribble from the perimeter, turning your back
Speaker 1: to the basket, and your ability to knock down shots
Speaker 1: over both shoulders. We didn't go over it in this video,
Speaker 1: but another huge element of Lebron's game has been that
Speaker 1: modern perimeter shack, that ability to to use his strength
Speaker 1: and size to just bully people around the rim with
Speaker 1: a live dribble. As a result, the Lebron has become
Speaker 1: one of the most well rounded basketball players that we've
Speaker 1: ever seen in this league. And he never gets included
Speaker 1: with the scores, like we talked about that night, because
Speaker 1: of the fact that he gets to the room so frequently.
Speaker 1: We talked about it this year, like Lebron everage seven
Speaker 1: makes in the restricted area per game. Steph Kauai and
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant combine to make six shots in the restricted
Speaker 1: area per game. So you watch them just make all
Speaker 1: of these complicated shots all the time, and so that
Speaker 1: causes people to gravitate towards them as scores. But the
Speaker 1: truth of the matter is when you combine Lebron James
Speaker 1: interior presence as a bullyball score around the rim and
Speaker 1: all those things that he rounded out with his skill
Speaker 1: set from the perimeter, with the ability to knock down
Speaker 1: shots turning over both shoulders out of the post, with
Speaker 1: the ability to knock down shots out of a different
Speaker 1: dribble combinations and out of different footwork from the perimeter,
Speaker 1: it suddenly made him completely unguardable. And when you pair
Speaker 1: that with his relentless willingness to make the right play
Speaker 1: and to hit his teammates and spots where they feel comfortable,
Speaker 1: he became what I believe to be the best offensive
Speaker 1: engine to ever play in the M. Yet the volume