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LeBron James: Miami Heat Phenom Can and Must Step Up in the Clutch - Bleacher Report

LeBron James is not a good player, not a star; he's hands-down the most talented, athletic basketball player in the NBA.

For three-quarters of basketball, that is. The one thing that separates James from greatness: the clutch factor.

Ahmad Rashad, sportscaster and former NFL player, said it best when referring to Reggie Miller's greatness against the New York Knicks in ESPN's 30 for 30 "Winning Time." Rashad couldn't  have said it any better:

"What do you do in 'Winning Time'? To want to be on the line, to want to take the last shot, you win or lose on me... You see guys say 'hey I got the last shot,' three, two, one, and they take it. It ain't goin' in. But there's certain guys, three, two, one, and even you think that ball is going in."

There is no question the guy can win basketball games.

James spearheaded an average-at-best Cleveland Cavaliers team to two consecutive seasons at the top of the Eastern Conference standings. In 2011, he led his Miami Heat to the NBA Finals in his first season with the team.

Yet regardless of how talented and great the teams he has led have been, his teams have been unable to come down with NBA championships. It was in that 2011 NBA Finals against the Mavericks that we learned that James would shy away when the team needed him most.

Over the course of the regular season, this has also become clear in some of the team's more recent losses at home and on the road.

In a 30-point performance that the team came up short in, James took just five shots in the fourth quarter and just one shot in the last seven minutes.

Does LeBron James Get It Done Late In Games in 2012?

Does LeBron James Get It Done Late In Games in 2012?

  • Yes

  • No

After scoring 32 points through the first three quarters against the Celtics in Miami, James scored just four points in the fourth quarter on just 2-for-6 shooting. Not to mention, he was just 1-for-3 in the final minute of play.

Granted, this is no James hate speech. As stated before, he is easily the most dominant player in the league on both ends of the floor when he wants to be. Watching James, you can expect two to three plays a game where you look to your friends and say, 'did he just do that, really?'

Yet come clutch time, James doesn't take the team on his back. He is absolutely, 100-percent capable of taking teams on his back in the clutch. No question about it. It is simply a mental obstacle that James will have to overcome.

Each and every fan of the game has to be anticipating just what James will do this postseason. Will he come out and show the world he can win his team the close games? Can King James get over the hump? James will be out there to show the world what he can do, and it will make this postseason all the more promising in 2012.

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