DeShawn Stevenson of the Nets has had as much success slowing down LeBron James as anyone in the NBA, including in last year’s Finals for the Mavericks.
But when James plays the way he did in the first quarter of last night’s 101-90 Heat win over the Nets in front of a sellout crowd at Newark’s Prudential Center, there might not be a player alive capable of keeping him under control.
“He’s an All-Star, MVP-type player,” Stevenson said. “I’ve always said that. And when he’s going like that … it’s tough.
“In the post, shooting the ball, getting dunks, and-ones, when he has all that going it’s tough. It’s real tough.”
James had everything going in the first quarter, when he scored 22 points while going a perfect 7-for-7 from the field and hitting eight of his nine attempts from the free-throw line, after sitting out of the Heat’s triple-overtime win over the Hawks in Atlanta on Thursday because of a sprained ankle.
“I was able to get a couple of breakaways for some easy points and to get to the free throw line and test things out in the first quarter,” James said.
He aced the test, outscoring the Nets by himself, 22-18, in the quarter, which he capped with a 19-foot jumper from the top of the key over rookie guard MarShon Brooks as time expired.
“Early on they were playing me one-on-one, and I had it going on,” James said. “They started double-teaming me in the post, so I started finding open guys.”
But as James, who finished with 30 points, seven rebounds and nine assists, couldn’t miss, Deron Williams and the rest of the Nets again struggled to score. Williams went 1-for-8 in the first quarter, and finished with 10 points on 4-for-16 shooting to go along with 10 assists and three rebounds.
The Nets as a whole did little better, shooting 33 percent from the field. One night after going 15-for-31 from 3-point range in a 97-85 win over the Raptors in Toronto that snapped a six-game losing streak, the Nets went 10-for-31 from behind the arc.
Afterward, Williams was blunt in his assessment of both his and the rest of the team’s performance.
“The offense [stinks],” he said. “It’s not very good right now. We’re not playing good. We’re not shooting good, I’m not shooting good, we’re turning the ball over. … When you play a team like [against] the Heat, when you turn the ball over, they’re going to convert, and they’re going to get up 20 points on you early.”
After falling behind by as many 24, the Nets managed to cut the deficit to 10 midway through the third quarter, and had a chance to get within single digits when Brooks broke out ahead of the pack after the Heat lost the ball and had a chance for a layup.
But James, trailing the play, came up from behind and blocked the shot, and the Heat quickly countered with back-to-back 3-pointers from Shane Battier and Norris Cole to put the game out of reach.
“You can get frustrated, but you’ve got to play,” Williams said. “We cut the lead down and we had a chance there when we were down 10, but we couldn’t convert plays and couldn’t get stops.”