Make or miss: Making the right basketball play

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

With 13 seconds left in Game 5 of the NBA finals, Lebron James used a Danny Green screen, began his attack and galloped his way to the basket.

As James came down the interior, he was met with three Miami Heat defenders in Jimmy Butler, Duncan Robinson, and Bam Adebayo.

James (ever the playmaker that he is and recognizing that a teammate would be open) passed the ball to the top of the key where a wide-open Danny Green stood.

The pass was off by a step but Green collected the ball, took a dribble for rhythm and launched what would have been a title-clinching shot, but he missed.

Morris would recover the ball only to throw an errant pass to Davis resulting in a turnover, and that was that. Miami would go on to win Game 5 and continue their hopes of a comeback.

That sequence became the talk of the town in all of sports and became the biggest what-ifs in the history of the NBA finals:

Was James correct in passing the ball to Danny Green? Or was it better if he had waited and settled for an isolation play?

Thousands of NBA fans took their sentiments to social media criticizing James on why he passed the ball, and instead should’ve taken the last shot.

On the other hand, NBA analysts applauded James’ vision of spotting Danny Green and praised him for that difficult swing pass to the top of the key.

So what really was the best option in those final seconds? Here is my take:

Locating Green for that wide-open three-pointer was indeed a good-decision by James but when the game is on the line, who do you expect will deliver?

For four grueling quarters, it was James who carried the Los Angeles Lakers offensively and had a slugfest with Butler in the insane last 2 minutes of the ball game.

If you were the one who carried the team all throughout, you might as well finish the grudge match, make or miss, your team will still look up high heading into the next game because it was King James who took the last shot.

What if James took it by himself? What if he wilted the clock and asked for a clear-out and took his man one-on-one?

This I think would fit the Lakers’ story the whole NBA season, a title after a decade, capped off by a King James game-winner.

Nothing to take away from James’ decision-making during the dying seconds, but what if he took it and nailed it? Another biggest what if in NBA history.

With the Game 5 buzz all over, will we see a different Laker team in Game 6 to close out the series? Or will Butler and the rest of Heat Nation continue their never-say-die attitude and force a Game 7?