LeBron James caught fire on Monday night against the Charlotte Bobcats and went off for a career-high 61 points. He set Miami Heat franchise records for points in a game, points in a quarter (25) and field goals in a game (22). The accomplishment came against a mediocre team, but does that really matter? Dominique Wilkins believes it does.
On Tuesday, Wilkins took to Twitter to play Devil’s advocate while everyone was still buzzing about LeBron’s huge night. The nine-time NBA All-Star simply saw it as LeBron getting hot against a terrible defense.
“No denying he put on a shooting display,” Wilkins wrote. “He was hot. Let’s not forget, he was playing the Bobcats. A sub-.500 team (with) a match up nightmare. Where is the Defense? The Bobcats put up 107 points in a defenseless display of basketball. Offensively who was there to make Bron work on D?”
The Heat scored 124 points, so I understand what Wilkins is trying to say. Still, downplaying a 61-point game is always going to draw backlash from the fans.
Of course, Wilkins’ argument had a bit of a self-serving tone to it.
“Watch the film. No close outs on D, doubles were late, rotations were slow,” he said. “It was too easy to score. At 54 (years old) I could drop 40 on that D.
“Bron is a freakish athlete, yes, no doubt. I could say I was too in my prime, but averaging 30 then against the greats like Bird, MJ, King AND having to guard them on the other side was an all out war. You were dogged by halftime and had to pick it up & do it again the 2nd half.”
Wilkins also noted that Al Jefferson had to carry the Bobcats with Gerald Henderson hurt. He said we should be talking more about Jefferson’s 38 points and 19 rebounds, and he’s right. Jefferson had a monster game that happened to be overshadowed by LeBron going off.
“Was this enough to now thrust Bron into MVP vote leads?” Wilkinson asked. “We forget the body of work (Kevin Durant) has been shouldering when (Russell) Westbrook goes down? Calm down people. Not taking anything away from a great OFFENSIVE night from one of the greatest the game has seen. He shot the lights out!”
Again, Wilkinson made a lot of valid points. People just don’t want to hear them after someone drops 61 points in a single game. It’s amazing no matter how you analyze it.
