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LeBron James’ passive play late just one reason Miami Heat lost

LOS ANGELES – When a team is expected to win often and big, there tends to be a loss of perspective after any defeat. That was the case last season and will clearly be again in this one.

Entering Wednesday night’s game against the Clippers, the Heat had lost just twice in 10 outings, but both defeats lent themselves to convenient confirmations of widely-held opinions.

Many attributed the first loss – Jan. 2 in Miami – to the Heat’s supposed trouble with zone defense, though the reality was Miami had misfired just as much against Atlanta’s man-to-man.

Then, many Wednesday blamed the second loss – 111-106 in overtime late Tuesday at Golden State – on the crunch-time passivity of LeBron James, viewing it as an extension of the final three games of the 2011 NBA Finals.

Charles Barkley, on ESPN 1000 in Chicago, pointed to James’ shot-less fourth quarter while the Heat squandered the last of a 17-point lead as evidence that James “doesn’t have an aggressive personality,” labeling him “a real nice guy” who is too prone to defer to Dwyane Wade.

Barkley then tried to buttress his supposition with statistics, asserting that James had gone from nearly averaging a triple-double in Wade’s absence, “scoring 30 points a game last week,” to stepping back “a little bit” after Wade’s return.

In reality, James averaged 19 shots in the two games without Wade. James took 19 on Tuesday, scoring 26 points (slightly under his overall average) while nearly recording a triple-double. He missed by three assists, and that total of seven doesn’t suggest an overabundance of deference.

That’s not to say that Heat fans should hope to routinely see the James they saw in Tuesday’s fourth quarter. There were certainly opportunities, even in his limited minutes – re-entering after a rest with 6:34 remaining – for him to take the ball to the basket the way he had earlier in the game.

Still, on the list of reasons why Miami lost Tuesday, James ranks somewhere around his jersey number (6). He actually warrants more criticism for forcing his active role in the third quarter’s final three possessions than for what he didn’t do in the fourth.

Explaining an NBA loss is never truly as simple as identifying a single factor, even if that factor is a stretch of rather pedestrian play from the game’s most gifted, polarizing player.

James’ alleged deference might not have mattered to the outcome if not for the appearance of several other issues. A flare-up of those familiar Heat flaws always tends to increase the chance of the rare Heat loss.

There were the 14 missed free throws, with Miami wasting a 10-attempt advantage to finish with the same 26 conversions as the Warriors.

There were the loose balls, off the rim or on the floor, that Chris Bosh (losing his matchup to David Lee) and others couldn’t seem to capture.

There were instances of “hero ball,” some from Wade, who missed seven of his eight attempts in the fourth quarter, predictably fatigued after a blazing start.

In all, only 41 percent of Miami’s field goals were assisted, down from the usual 60 percent, suggesting more one-on-one half-court play, especially from the two stars (26 percent of baskets assisted).

And, yes, there was a loss of composure, due to something we’ve seen before: an obsession with officiating.

The surprise, perhaps, was that co-captain Udonis Haslem was the culprit. Frustrated by “a series of events” that included a reversal of a block/charge ruling and the indignity of getting hacked three times inside, Haslem lashed out while the Warriors stormed out.

With Wade busy trying to calm Haslem, Nate Robinson converted a 5-on-3 layup. Then Robinson got to take a technical foul shot, too, to tie the score at 96.

“I guess I haven’t been in this league long enough to get calls,” Haslem said. “It is what it is, man.”

It was a loss. Just one. That loss had more than one author, no matter the urge to simply call out LeBron.

By ETHAN J. SKOLNICK, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

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