NBA Finals – Will the King get his Ring?

Now I’m getting scared, really scared… and this time it’s not that Scream 2 type of scared, this is the prescription pills popping, life-changing scared.

To me LeBron James is the King of Basketball; the man who made me a Mosotho on the other side of the world passionately support the Cleveland Cavaliers and then follow the Miami Heat loosely through this NBA season and now fervently during the playoffs.

James is the man who has put aside endless petty criticisms to lead his team to the NBA Finals and the chance to win a championship ring that has eluded him so far during his career, a ring he needs to confirm his greatness.

But as the hours tick towards Game 6 of the finals tonight the anxiety steadily increases. The Dallas Mavericks lead the Heat 3-2 and need just one more win to claim the 2011 title.

What’s even most worrying however is that superhero himself looks scared.

The first victory is always the most difficult and James has often reiterated he just wants his team to win and that he isn’t concerned with his personal performance. This in its essence is acceptable, firstly LeBron does desperately need this ring to release the shackles of expectation around him, and secondly he is playing alongside another of the game’s greats in Dwayne Wade.

However it has become clear that James sitting back and waiting for this championship to come may not be enough, not against this Dallas team. It’s also clear that James’ passiveness has transmitted itself through the Heat team so far in the finals in which they have had chances to win all five games but in large failed.

Without James’ influence in the fourth quarter the Heat have faltered and instead of being in the driver’s seat or even champions they are on the cusp of elimination heading into tonight’s Game 6 in Miami.

Disturbingly James has only scored 11 points in the fourth quarter in this series, as many as Dallas’ utility man J.J. Barea. And although James provided the game winning assist for Chris Bosh in Game 3 he is just not doing enough when it matters.

This has borne itself out in the way the Heat have allowed Dallas to stage cinema-type comebacks all series.

In Game 5 Miami led 99-95 after Wade hit a three-pointer with 4:37 minutes left on the clock, and it seemed the Heat were poised to grab a stranglehold on the series. But they collapsed, failing to put their foot down on the pedal and close out the game.

In Game 2, Miami led 88-73 with 7:14 minutes to go after Wade made another three-pointer. However Dallas went on to outscore Miami 22-5 to win the game.

In Game 4, Udonis Haslem’s jumper with 10:12 minutes left gave the Heat a 74-65 lead but from there Dallas went on a game-winning 21 points to 9 run.

Then in Game 5 the Heat’s 99-95 lead quickly vanished quickly as Dallas found a 17-4 last kick to move within a win of the NBA title.

Unfortunately it’s a sporting rule that the great ones have to continually step up. It’s funny because that’s what James did so often at Cleveland, but he never won. Now, with help, James is maybe hoping to win a title by taking the back seat. I’m sure with a championship win James would go on to dominate this Heat team and basketball from here, and he probably feels the same way. But unfortunately there is no hiding place in the Finals especially when on the other side you have Dirk Nowitzki who has 52 points in the fourth quarters in this series and who has scored an astonishing 24 from 24 the free-throw line – more than the Heat have combined in fourth quarters during the finals.

There are other factors that make one more scared now as the Heat head into tonight. Miami are weary from a week on the road and some including Wade are nursing bruises. The Mavericks on the other hand are high on confidence and add to that the monstrous emergence of Tyson Chandler and clutch scoring of Jason Terry.

Add to that, the Heat have the absolute pressure at home having to win twice to claim the NBA title.

So is it possible for Miami?

“The good thing about life and the good thing about this game, (is) we get another opportunity, another crack at it,” Captain Wade said after Thursday’s Game 5 loss. “It comes down to either not closing out games or closing it out. We have another game Sunday to be able to do that.”

And as Nowitzki added, it’s not over, the finals are “not a best-of-five series. It’s a best-of-seven; all that’s happened is that everybody protected their home court.”

And thankfully for James, and his fans like myself, we can look to last year to see that it can be done. The LA Lakers were in same position against the Boston Celtics but rallied to win the championship.

Last word goes to King James himself…

“We’ve had a few breakdowns late in games in this series that we didn’t have in the first three series. We just got to push through it. At this point we have no choice, honestly. We got two games left, and we worked hard all year to get home-court advantage. So we have to take advantage of it,” James said.

Yes, Ntate James tonight is do-or-die, and for you to win that precious Ring you may have to step up sooner than you had planned.

Tonight is the time for LeBron James to prove his greatness.