Greg Cote

In My Opinion

Greg Cote: February sees Miami Heat in all its majesty

 
 

LeBron James drives past Kyrie Irving in the first period of the game as the Miami Heat play the Cleveland Cavaliers at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Fl. February 24, 2013.
LeBron James drives past Kyrie Irving in the first period of the game as the Miami Heat play the Cleveland Cavaliers at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Fl. February 24, 2013.
C.W. Griffin / Staff Photo

gcote@miamiherald.com

Two thoughts arose from the most recent Heat game and both reflect how things have gone on this 12-game winning streak wrapping up a magical month for Miami. February was simply Fabulary. (Sorry).

No. 1: Dwyane Wade scored 39 points along with eight rebounds and seven assists — on a career-best-tying 19 field goals — and wasn’t even Miami’s best player Tuesday night. A stat line that would make him the best in the league most nights and be a career pinnacle for most guys didn’t even make him the player of the game here. Because LeBron James had 40 points, a career-high 16 assists and eight rebounds.

No. 2: Remember how a couple of years ago LeBron was being vilified nationally, booed in every opposing arena and pretty much held up as a despicable traitor? Now, the biggest controversy surrounding him and what’s getting him in trouble is that his pregame warm-ups are too exciting.

It’s Good to be King has never been truer than right now for James and the reigning NBA champions.

“Yeah, but” concerns about the Heat such as defensive lapses or a small-ball lack of rebounding still linger, not erased by this win streak, but those concerns seem more and more superfluous the more James runs away with the league MVP race and the more Wade reasserts himself as still elite and still the game’s top second scoring option.

“This is what we’ve been talking about,” LeBron said as the streak struck 12. “We’re coming together.”

The team is so confident and care-free that LeBron’s biggest concern right now is that some Twitter critics are harping on him for his recent habit of putting on elaborate dunk shows during pregame warm-ups when he famously declines to enter the NBA All-Star dunk contest.

“Maybe I should stop because it’s making a lot of people mad,” he said after Tuesday’s win. “They’re like, ‘Well, if you can do it in warm-ups, why don’t you be in the dunk contest?’ Stop it.”

(James also mentioned this week that he runs a 40-yard dash faster than Manti Te’o’s 4.8 seconds. Far more pertinent is that no defender wishes to stand in the way when LeBron is dashing toward one of the dunks that count).

February deserves a quick but lauding review because it has been the finest slice of play in the Big 3 era, led by an ongoing performance by James that has been nearly surreal. He shot 64.1 percent from the field this month (139 for 217), the most accurate month by any NBA player with at least 200 shot attempts since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in March 1983.

Thirty years ago. James wasn’t born then.

With LeBron, though, we have come to expect to be constantly wowed. That makes Wade’s February in some ways just as impressive. He averaged 26.6 points this month — pre-LeBron numbers — and has shot better than 60percent over his past five games. Any whispered notion that Wade might be tipping over on to the wrong side of his prime has been officially tabled.

And, for Heat fans, nothing encourages belief in a repeat Heat championship than the idea Wade still is right where James is: On top of his game.

Analytics are big in pro basketball now, with lasers and computers breaking down every facet of the game into minutia, dissecting shooting percentages every way possible. But it’s too much information, at least for me.

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