The last game before heat fans turned into Cleveland fans

Lebron is a nightmare for 99 percent of all defenders. But Kawhi is that extraordinary 1 percent that can frustrate Lebron.

The most impressive "lockdown" I've ever seen. Kawhi a 22 year old kid literally put a clamp on a prime LeBron. One of the best performance I've ever seen and it's in the finals. He even shoot 60/60 split % with 18+ points per game

this is the last time i saw miami heat fans

Offense wins games, but defense wins championships.

Damn, Duncan in the inside and Kawhi in the perimeter is a defense monster.

LeBron looked like he's afraid of touching the ball... Spurs defense is insane.

As a Laker fan, Kawhi is a legit lockdown defender. Big hands, long arms, with great anticipation. Reminds me of Pippen.

Bless this series. Lebron forced to drive off Kawhi’s perimeter defense into Duncan’s in the paint was fkn Kryptonite.

man, I can't stop loving Kawhi game-style. the more I watch his plays (especially defensive plays), I love his style more.

When do people learn stats don't mean shit. Stats don't measure intensity, passiveness, and effort. In the world of basketball, it's the eye test. If you watched the 2014 Finals. You could see why Kawhi got the MVP because when he absolutely locked down Lebron and kept covering his eyes, swiping at the ball, disrupting his rhythm, and played him with maximum effort with his feet on the move at all times in defensive-ready position. Everyone could see after the Spurs won why Kawhi deserved the MVP aside from stats. It's because when he came in, the series changed. Lebron looked passive most of the series, giving the ball up immediately when pressured by Leonard, or passing the ball away at the end of the shot clock to force an errant shot by his teammate or stat padded assists. Good amount of his stats came from when he wasn't guarded by Kawhi or pick & roll when Kawhi was off him, or when his team was down by 15+ he finally got into the comfort zone of "too late to matter so I'm gonna be aggressive now." Kawhi definitely outplayed him.

The Spurs beat the Heat so bad that Lebron decided to quit and go back home

That team defense was also spectacular. The Heat looked outright dejected after the 2nd quarter. Imagine losing Kawhi off a screen only to run into the likes of Tim Duncan.

Kawhi is a great player and a great person. He lost his father to gun violence in HS and is now living out his father's dream for him to be in the NBA. I can't imagine the pain this man went through, respect

man looking back on this, Kawhi was so inexperienced and it showed, but his raw defensive awareness and sheer persistence more than made up for that

“First field goal in almost 7 minutes”. Damn, that Spurs defense is crazy.

9:35 I'm going back to Cleveland

3:11 Kawhi is such a predator, lol...trying to make a play against every single dribble

2:12 sakuragi defense by diaw

And Lebron fans should know the difference between coming through for your team and padding your stats.

Usually when you are quick enough to keep up with LeBron, you are not long and strong enough to guard him. When you are strong and tall enough, you are too slow to keep up with him. Kawhi is strong, tall, long and quick enough to deal with Lebron which forces him either to give up the ball or go to his unreliable jump shots. In terms of total package, I rate Kawhi over LeBron any day.

The Klaw shut down your king .. *no more arguments

2:19 it’s crazy how diaw’s strategy of just flapping his hands in the air on defense worked😂

This was another critical game among SOOOOO many others where Lebron looked like he was completely frozen in fear.

Show me a play where Lebron scores on Leonard without using a screen I mean he's always passing it or calling bird man it Bosh

Sometimes I come back to this video. Obviously Kawhi is a ridiculously good defender, but the help defense from Tim Duncan was extremely important too.

Lebron's understanding of basketbal = Hard drive, if can't, give up and pass to the closest all star teammate, get assists

Wtf was he talking about at 3:20 those 19 weren't on kawhi 😂 he locked bron ass up

“LeBrOn iS a MisSmAtCh FoR eVeryOnE“ LeBron literally takes like 5 screens per possesion to have a favorable match

4:51 TONY'S FACE AND EYES LMFAOOOOO

Now to analyze LeBron's 2014 Finals in full context. LeBron was only productive for the first 2 games of the series. In the final 3 games, LeBron didn't show up on offense or defense, and was completely outplayed by 13 ppg Kawhi Leonard across the board. The majority of LeBron's stats over the last 3 games were padded in blowout situations (being down 15+). LeBron by no means was "carrying" his team in these Finals. Games 3-4-5 Lebron scored 51 of his 81 points (63%) being down 15+ Leonard scored 27 of his 71 points (38%) being up 15+ Leonard outscored Lebron 44-30 in non-blowout situations Video Footage "Was LeBron James Truly Effective in the 2014 Finals?" - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j5ZipZB135vHfas.html at the 2:40 mark Spurs leading by 15 points or more 141 total points for LeBron 51 scored in blowout situations However, the Heat were never losing by 15+ with LeBron on the court in Games 1-2 of the Finals. So those 51 points in blowout situations (down 15+) all came in Games 3-4-5 when LeBron scored a total of 81 points. Leonard 23.7 ppg on 69% LeBron 27.0 ppg on 55% (Leonard 14% more efficient) And again, Lebron stats were heavily padded in garbage time, in non blowout situations Leonard outscored him Leonard 9.3 rpg LeBron 7.7 rpg Leonard 2.0 spg LeBron 1.7 spg Leonard 2.0 bpg LeBron 0.7 bpg Leonard 2.3 apg with 1.7 TOpg LeBron 4.7 apg with 3.7 TOpg Leonard had a slightly better ast:TO ratio Through games 3-4-5, Leonard scored much more efficiently (and more in non blowout situations) and outrebounded, outstole, and outblocked Lebron with a better ast:TO ratio Game 3 Lebron had 14 points and 0 TO in first quarter, then 8 points and 7 TOs for the last 3 quarters. LeBron had 22-5-7-5 with 7 TOs on 64%, Wade had 22-4-2-2 with 5 TOs on 67%. But over the last 3 quarters, LeBron had 8 points and 7 TOs to Wade's 20 points and 3 TOs. The Heat cut the lead from 15 to 9 without LeBron, after Wade subbed in for him, from the 5:00 to 1:00 mark of the 3rd quarter, but even with that help LeBron still lost. Game 4 Lebron had 9 points in first half and the Heat were blown out by 19 at halftime. He padded his stats from there, and he did not score on Leonard in the first half. Game 5 Lebron had 1 FG in 2nd quarter (2:30 mark) to bring the Heat within 5. Then he did not score again until the Heat were down 21 with 4:40 in the 3rd. Leonard clearly outplayed Lebron over the final 3 games, even with Lebron padding his stats, and Lebron failed to score consistently until after his teams were getting blown out. LeBron did not play well in the 2014 Finals after Game 2, he only padded his stats. LeBron's 2014 Finals was a repeat of the 2011 Finals after Game 2, the only differences being that LeBron's teammates disappeared along with him, and LeBron padded his stats to save face. So any notion that LeBron had an "amazing" series, and still lost because of his teammates is false. LeBron failed his team over the Final 3 games, and that's why he lost. He did not contribute offensively or defensively. - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jrGFdqiQmq6beas.html The Spurs did have great offensive execution in this series, but a lot of that had to do with the poor defensive leadership of LeBron, who got exposed by Kawhi Leonard, the main reason for the Spurs' offensive explosion in Games 3-4-5. Remember, this is the same Spurs team that went 7 games against a top 10 worst defense in the league, the 8-seed Mavericks. They were far from an invincible or unguardable team. This is a myth that LeBron apologists have concocted to save face for LeBron and make out the 2014 Spurs to be much better than they actually were. The 2014 Spurs were the weakest of their 5 title teams, as the 2005 Spurs were the only other Spurs title team to go to 7 games, and it was against the defending champion Pistons in the Finals, not a sub-50 win 8-seed with a bottom 10 defense. They only seemed like such an unstoppable offense because LeBron, with his atrocious defense, allowed Leonard to shoot 65% on him for the series according to ESPN "MVP Leonard Does it All" and average 23.7 ppg on 69% in Games 3-4-5 as the main reason for the Spurs' offensive explosion after just having 13 ppg in the regular season. Jordan was used to winning with less offensive help, and his own defense would be more than enough to stop 13 ppg 2014 Kawhi Leonard from averaging 23.7 ppg on 69% the last 3 games, being the main reason for the Spurs' offensive explosion 2014 Finals LeBron's top 3 teammates - Wade 15 ppg on 44% - Bosh 14 ppg on 55% - Allen 10 ppg on 42% - Lewis 9 ppg on 50% 1996-1998 Finals Jordan's top 3 teammates - Pippen 17 ppg on 39% - Kukoc 12 ppg on 45% - Longley 8 ppg on 55% - Combined* 7 ppg on 44% *Rodman 1996, Williams 1997, Harper 1998 Jordan had no problem winning with less offensive help than LeBron in the 2014 Finals. And unlike LeBron, he did not stagnate the offense by waiting until garbage time to produce, so Wade Bosh etc. would play even better with Jordan putting much more pressure on the Spurs defense (and offense, with his own DPOY-level defense) Jordan has won with the two lowest scoring winning Finals supporting casts since 1954 *All Sub-60 ppg supporting casts in the NBA Finals for Championship Teams* _Post-1954_ 1994 Rockets - 59.3 ppg 2006 Heat - 58.2 ppg 1999 Spurs - 57.4 ppg 1997 Bulls - 55.5 ppg 1998 Bulls - 54.5 ppg Calculated by team Finals points - leading scorer Finals points Difference divided by number of playoff games The only sub-56 ppg supporting casts to win an NBA Finals since 1954 were led by Jordan, at 34 and 35 years old no less, so leading the 2014 Heat, prime or 96-98 Jordan, would not be an issue. Especially not against a team that went 7 games against a top 10 worst defense 8-seed Mavs team. *The 10 lowest scoring playoff supporting casts on title teams in the shot-clock era* _(Post-1954)_ 10. 1994 Rockets - 68.3 PPG 9. 2006 Heat - 67.8 PPG 8. 1993 Bulls - 67.3 PPG 7. 2012 Heat - 67.0 PPG 6. 1996 Bulls - 66.7 PPG 5. 1992 Bulls - 65.9 PPG 4. 2004 Pistons - 65.6 PPG 3. 1999 Spurs - 65.2 PPG 2. 1997 Bulls - 61.5 PPG 1. 1998 Bulls - 60.8 PPG In the shot-clock era, Jordan has - 5 of the 8 lowest scoring playoff supporting casts for title teams - 4 of the 6 lowest scoring playoff supporting casts for title teams - 3 of the 5 lowest scoring playoff supporting casts for title teams - The 2 lowest scoring playoff supporting casts for title teams - Jordan is the only player to lead multiple top 10 lowest-scoring playoff supporting casts among title teams Calculated by team playoff points - leading scorer playoff points Difference divided by number of playoff games So leading a struggling Heat offense (largely due to LeBron padding a large number of his stats in blowout situations in the first place) against a Spurs team and offense that went 7 games against an 8-seed bottom 10 defense would not be an issue for Jordan. The only player to lead a lesser scoring supporting cast to the NBA Finals than the 1997 or 1998 Bulls is Allen Iverson on the 2001 Sixers. The 2001 Sixers' teammates outside of Iverson scored 60.3 PPG in the 22 playoff games Iverson played. Game 3 against the Bucks in which Iverson did not play is excluded from this calculation.

Kawhi is literally the perfect perimeter defender, great at POA, help defense, instincts, switch ability, footwork and the most important thing which is commitment to that side of the ball

This is one of best defensive highlights i have ever seen😍

LeStatspadder realized Dwade was passed his prime and could not carry him no more so he went to join prime Kyrie.

When the commentator is talking about how LeBron is not blowing by Parker, you see Kahwi in the background like a shark, just waiting for him to try and drive. 🤣

Lol look at kawhi doing help defense even when he's clampping LeBron

This is the same lebron who choked against Mavericks on 2011 NBA Finals.😬😬😬😅😅😅😀😀😀😀

6:05 look at LeBron's hustle to get back on defense!

This is why I consider Kobe over Lebron. Because I'd rather have my best player try and fight and go 6-24 than have my best player not even look to score. "It's not about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

@4:21 is just awful offense and indicative of what Lebron does wrong on offense. Look how long he holds the ball only to do absolutely nothing with it. He does this all the time and it's something Zach Lowe has spoken about as well. When someone guards him coming over the line or gets in his pocket at the top of the 3, he almost finds it insulting and just holds the ball, stagnating the offense. I don't know why teams don't do this more against him. He's still going to score and you may get in a bit of foul trouble, but it's worth the risk from what I can tell. Lebron doesn't like guys pressuring his ball handling and he abuses defenders that don't crowd him. By this notion, he would have supreme problems against a MJ led Bulls, or Kobe/Shaq led Lakers teams where their perimeter defending was stellar, as it is here with Kawhi. Lebron defenders "defend" his performance by stats, but stats almost never tell the story and the padding of points in meaningless minutes when games were out of reach is plain to see by anyone who watched this series.

For every king, there is an assassin.

Leonard was Amazing

Peep my boy diaw playing D 2:14 - 2:20 😂😂😂

If you watch this game and then watch the Dallas series I cannot fathom how you could put LeBron over Jordan

People forget Kawhi was FMVP that series. He was also DPOY

That's why lebron never be a goat,,,he can't create is own shot,,his afraid,,goat never afraid

crazy that a young kawhi was able to lockdown one of the goats in the finals still to this day

9:09 LeChoke

That's why he'll never be better than Michael Jordan. Jordan scored when he wanted to.

i hope this get added to his documentary

@2:10 That was definitely amazing. Good job KL

Young Kawhi and a prime Lebron. Kawhi destroyed him and the 2013/2014 Miami's Super heat team.

How passive was Lebron in this 3rd quarter? Wow. They were dying on offence, nothing was happening and he refused to attack, even with Parker on him. I just dont understand him. Say what you want about the selfish Kobe Bryant, but he would never let his team look so unimaginative on offence without at least trying to take over. He doesnt care if you call him selfish for it, but he will go out winning or losing with him being aggressive and going for it.

This is the time that the league doesn’t tolerate the flopping. Pure basketball

There was a clip where Lebron was like "f**ck"....when he noticed Leonard checking in.

You can tell Kawhi tired him out in this series. Lebron still hit shots when he took them and was still efficient. He just started taking less shots because it took so much effort to score on Kawhi.

Kawhi is still an under rated player

And they say this guy is better than Jordan 😂😂😂😂

It wasn't just Kawhi. Look at how the Spurs were defending all of the off-ball screens. The communication was crazy.

Look don't get me wrong Lebron is one of the most incredible regular season players i've seen as far as consistency goes its freakish. The issue i have with Lebron is when the going gets tough he packs his bags for the next best thing. It was inevitable he would win rings especially with the injury cake walk he had in the East while at Miami they came into the finals much fresher than OKC/Spurs. He just isn't made of the right stuff and time and time again we see him fail or defer when it matters and just when you think he has overcome it for a while he gets tired blames everyone else is outwardly frustrated at his team missing shots gives up and loses another championship. I will use Jordan because Lebron fans seem so fond of comparing them, he was 6/6 which meant when he had the chance he won, never went to a game 7. Never had Charles Barkley like Lebron had D wade because that's how good D wade when healthy is. Jordan, Bird, Magic, Hakeem just to name a few overcame the odds and always managed to find a way regardless of the way their team was playing at the time it's about over coming the odds but instead Lebron only ever seems happy when he has a healthy all star team and a bench the can demon a 3 ball in from anywhere (Mike Miller, Shane Battier, Ray Allen) He has NEVER won a ring without one of those 3 taking over a game at some point with outside shooting. Amazing yes. All time great regular season yes. Playoffs when it matters? Not even close.

Kawhi the 3peat stopper

I remember this game Kawhi leonard was a beast. And yes im a gsw fan

Lebron literally panic passing the ball everytime he gets it. Even if the teammate isn't open he just throws it to them late in clock. Cant believe the announcer said kawhi was getting his butt handed to him

This is why we cannot take the GOAT debate seriously

Ladies and gentlemen that's how to stop LeBron. I've train hard for this one.. I maybe quiet but I'm an assassin... Thanks KZfaq

Kawhi is awesome but goddamn even old Timmy was a monster

Boy the way Bron was tryna set a screen to get a switch 🤣🤣

This was really hard to watch but understand me when I say It pays to always be humble no matter how good the world thinks your are there is always somebody who can beat you.

This was a beat down no other way to describe it! 👊👊👊👊👊👊👊👊👊👀😎

After this the king became a flopper😂

Dude Lebron rlly padding😂😂😂

Kawhi never let down his contested hands on lebron and every allstar players that he defends lebron is a very good player but kawhi is also a very good defender

2:12 ! That Cat like defense on Bosh! Meow!!

When I look on this video, I understand the thing that Lebron is not MJ

Kawhi, Diaw and Duncan made it hard on the Heat this series. Diaw was a big problem as well.

As good as he is, all of his repeated disappearing in the big moments and especially all 3 of his Finals losses make it pretty much impossible for LeBron to be in that class of top 5 greats. When other legends lost they still went out with great performances but with LeBron that is usually not the case. 2007 Finals - 35% FG and 6 turnovers a game, missed game tying shot, Game 4 they lost by 1 point and he had 20 bricks, 6 turnovers, and 2/6 free throws. And the Cavs top 5 defense did a great job of containing Duncan to 45% FG that series too 2008 - 35% FG, 5+ turnovers a game, 2/18 FG 10 turnovers in Game 1 with a missed game tying shot, even in Game 7 with 45 points he he played poor defense on Pierce who lit him up for 41 and sent him home 2009 - he actually did everything he could and still lost 2010 - the famous quit game in Game 5, 34% FG and 6 turnovers a game in Games 4-5-6 vs Boston 2011 - no defense, showed up and outscored by a bench player, 0 clutch 2014 - stat padding, quitting on his team in Game 5, no defense, no taking over when he should have like 2007 DET or 2012 BOS

love to see best player vs best defender duel, reminds me of glory days to see wilt vs russel, hakkem vs robinson or dikembe, or KG VS duncan

LeBron was making the worst plays. Not trusting his teammates and such. Lack of attention to detail is what costs this.

wow 22 jump street commercial in the back, going down memory lane

Kawhi on Dwade was even worse. Dwade couldnt dribble around Kawhi. Lost it almost every time.

4:28 James is 6’9 and guarded by 6’2 and decided to pass the ball during iso play. Kobe Jordan > Bron bron His I.Q is overrated Another one 5:06

Kawhi Leonard Andre Iguodala Patrick Beverley The best Defender for Lebron James

The sport changed after this finals. Physical defense was outlawed.

Supreme stuff. Thanks so much!! It would have been perfect have you stressed out that the only basket from James in the 2qrt was a travel.

Go Spurs Go! This was such a happy time as a fan. Spurs re - entered their championship wayz and showed the league that they were business. I know the new Spurs will do the same!

Lebron single handedly carried this team

back when the finals were competitive

2:16 lmao, you gotta love Diaw.

Ever Spurs team strikes fear in the heart of Lebron, no matter the lineup

It was a team effort of spurs to defend against maimi that held lebron down.

Kawhi defending LeBroke and Norris Cole Defending Kawhi 😅😅😅

He averaged 28-8-4 on 57/52/80%. He DID play LeBron well in these quarters, and that narrative purveys the whole series like it wasn''t Wade and Bosh averaging career-lows in the Finals that cost them a chance (they still would have lost, just not 4-1).

this is like heat vs nuggets

2:12 *I'M DEAD.*

Every time bron touch the hall he needs a screen 😂

People want to talk about the goat you'd never see MJ passing up shots like bronny had the opportunity to take especially down in the series

I loved this.

If lakers and clippers will face against each other in WFC kawhi would definitely lock down lebron again.

I heard somebody said that lebron makes his teammate better..than why they lost against spurs

This series a legend was born.